×

Hollis Brookline slips by Souhegan

Want a good high school take? Then make sure to catch a Hollis Brookline-Souhegan baseball game.

It’s been a good, clean, competitive rivalry over the years, and that certainly was on display last Friday when the Cavaliers got the jump on the Sabers, 3-1, handing Souhegan (2-1) its first loss.

“The margin for error shrinks dramatically when you play good teams,” Sartell said, his team now 2-0. “We’re loaded, we think, we’ve got some good baseball players up and down the roster.”

The Cavaliers also just seemed to be a little more fiery, and it helped lead to their three runs.

“They executed on every aspect of the game today,” Sabers coach Chris Metz said. “We did not execute, we didn’t pay attention to detail at all. We didn’t compete, and we didn’t execute, and that’s not who we are.”

HB was aggressive from the start. Torin White scored after he doubled off Saber starter Colin Burke and opted to try to score after Paul Vachon’s infield hit. He forced an errant throw and HB led 1-0.

Souhegan did tie it off Cavs starter James Lager on Kyan Bagshaw’s RBI double in the fourth, but Hollis Brookline grabbed the lead for good in the bottom half when Zak Lussier stole second and scored on consecutive wild pitches.

The Cavs were aggressive on the bases all day, and it helped them get their runs. A perfect example was their third score in the fifth.

Padraig Mac Seain, who reached by hit by pitch, caught everyone by surprise with an easy steal of third and scored on White’s sac fly to right.

“My guy does his job, other team does their job,” Sartell said. “Kid (Kyan Bagshaw) had a gun from right field … Lot of working parts there, less than two outs, I’m going to take that chance every time.”

“They did all the extra things today,” Metz said. “We hit a guy, he scores. We kick a ball, he scores. All the things you don’t want to do in the game of baseball, we did today.”

The Cavs had just five hits against Saber pitching, but HB’s tandem of Lager and reliever Charles Hale kept Souhegan hitters off balance, limiting them to four.

“Two juniors too,” Sartell said. “We’ve got some good pitching.”

“You’ve got to give your hats off to HB,” Metz said. “Their pitchers threw strikes, and they played great defense behind it. And they executed when they had runners in scoring position.

“All three games we’ve played this year we’ve come out flat.We try to get them going and everything and we come out flat. That’s one thing we’ve got to change, one thing we’ve got to work on.

But I’m super proud of our guys. Today just wasn’t our day.”

The Cavs weren’t flat, clearly fired up to face a good team they enjoy playing.

“It always has been and always will be a rivalry between the towns, they play a lot of summer ball together,” Sartell said. “They know each other really well.”

Too bad they won’t see each other again during the regular season, but there’s always the playoffs. Sartell felt this game tells him a few things about his team.

“It does,” he said, “and I feel good about it.”