Claremont
For the longest time, the two teams squared off like evenly matched boxers, landing a punch here and punch there, never able to come up with the knockout blow until the 10th.
“This was a game between two teams throwing strikes, picking the ball up on defense and waiting for the other guy to make a mistake,” Bow coach Ben Forbes said. “Fortunately for us, we held on.”
The game came down to the stamina of the relief pitchers.
Bow starter Brandon Winch went 2 innings before Forbes went to senior captain Jeff Bell, who struggled at times but helped himself by not walking anybody in an 87-pitch relief effort to get the win.
Stevens starter Ryan Napsey lasted 4 innings before tiring and gave way to Drew Grenier, who tossed two-hit baseball until the wheels came off in the 10th.
Bell also had four hits to solidify his effort. “He’s our leader,” Forbes said.
While the game had some spotty play early, there were only two errors, one for each side.
Stevens had chances in the eighth and ninth innings to leave with a win, one desperately needed as the chance of making D-III’s 20-team state tournament field is slipping away. The Cards came to bat in the eighth trailing 3-2 and tied the game on singles from Coby Hussey, Zach O’Brien and freshman Henri Bourque, but the inning ended with runners on first and third.
Then in the ninth, with the game still tied at 3, Derek Stanhope double and a Noah Spaulding walked ahead of a failed force play to load the bases with one out. Bell got the Nos. 3 and 4 batters out and the game remained deadlocked. But not for long.
The first two Bow batters in the 10th went down on fly balls, but the next nine reached consecutively, with eight scoring and all against Grenier, who threw 84 pitches in relief before being taken out of the game in favor of Login Barry, who got the final out.
When runs were precious, Stevens took a 1-0 lead in the first when Spaulding reached after his third strike was misplayed by the Bow catcher. He moved to second when Grenier was hit by a pitch and scored on Hussey’s single. It was 2-0 in the third with Spaulding again the sparkplug, as he singled, went to third on Grenier’s hit and scored on a wild pitch.
Bow began answering back with single runs in the fifth and seventh innings. The run in the seventh that tied the game at 2-2 came without a hit as Jack Corriveau was hit by pitch, stole second, was sacrificed to third and squeezed home.
All nine starters had at least one hit in the 14-hit Bow attack. Still, it will be the missed chances in the late innings that will haunt Stevens coach Paul Silva.
“We certainly had our opportunities,” he said. “Let’s hope we learn something from this.”
Hussey, Bourque and Stanhope all had two hits for Stevens.
Stevens (2-4) has a split doubleheader with Newport on Wednesday, starting in Newport at 3 p.m. and finishing in Claremont at 7 p.m.
Bow is 5-2, with its only two losses coming to Bishop Brady.