Rob Woodward, coach of the Lebanon Post 22 senior American Legion baseball team, hits infield ground balls before Sunday's 9-0 defeat of Keene Post 4 at Lebanon High.
Rob Woodward, coach of the Lebanon Post 22 senior American Legion baseball team, hits infield ground balls before Sunday's 9-0 defeat of Keene Post 4 at Lebanon High. Credit: —Valley News - Tris Wykes

Lebanon — Landscaping workers and coaches toiled for four hours Sunday morning and afternoon so the Lebanon senior American Legion Post 22 baseball game could be played. Heavy, overnight rains had left patches of the Lebanon High infield under water and others the consistency of pudding.

Minutes before the first pitch, Post 22 assistant coach Carlos Fleming was raking a soupy mixture from in front of the home dugout and down an adjacent bank so players wouldn’t have to slog through it en route to the batter’s box.

The hot, exasperating labor paid off for Lebanon, which pinned a 9-0 defeat on Keene Post 4 to finish the regular season 11-4 and clinch second place in the state’s District A standings. Post 22 will face Rochester, District B’s third-place finisher, on Friday in the teams’ opening game of the 8-team state tournament at Nashua’s Holman Stadium. The double-elimination event is scheduled to run through the following Tuesday.

“Yesterday we had a setback,” said Post 22 coach Rob Woodward, referring to Saturday’s extra-innings loss to visiting Milford. “We had eight errors and we were doing uncharacteristic things. We didn’t do the little things right and it was proven to us. But I think when we head to the tournament we’ll be fine.”

Andrew Houde allowed four hits, struck out 11 batters and walked none in a dominating pitching performance. Keene’s players were laughing and joking themselves halfway through the game, but even if they’d been deadly serious, any chance at victory was severely undercut by the big righthander.

“Houdie probably had his best game at being around the plate,” Woodward said. “He threw 102 pitches and usually he’s running into that in the seventh or eighth inning. He gets into a groove and he just keeps pounding the strike zone. If (the calls) are going his way, then it’s over.”

Houde attended Keene State for part of the past school year and played on the Owls basketball team but not its baseball squad. The Newport High graduate left the university before the final term ended and Woodward said he’s working with the player to get him ready for a transfer to Nichols College in Dudley, Mass., south of Worcester. The Bison were 24-18 last season.

“This is his get ready time to go back to college,” Woodward said. “We’re working on a few breaking pitches and a splitter that he’s always had. But when you take some time off, you tend to lose a few things.”

Houde has sometimes been distracted by heckling and trash talk from opponents and fans, but Woodward said he’s also worked with his protege to tune out such chatter.

“You see his facial expression change when he’s getting ugly,” the coach said, recalling with a chuckle how he and his parents sometimes had to grit their teeth when Woodward played in the Major Leagues. “Then we talk and I send him back on his way. The best way to take care of that is to beat a team and then you’ve had the last word.”

At the plate, Houde had a single and a double and Coby Hussey and Henry Day each had two singles, the former adding three RBIs. Post 22 sent 11 batters to the plate and scored the game’s first six runs during the third inning. The hosts used six hits and two walks for their outburst, then added single runs during the fourth, sixth and eighth innings.

Keene, which had only nine players, committed three errors and advanced a runner as far as third base only once. Lebanon is scheduled to play District A’s final game today when it hosts Laconia at 5 p.m. at Lebanon High in the makeup of a game rained out on July 14.

Last season, Post 22 lost its first two state tournament games and was quickly eliminated. This season, the hope is that a 1-2 pitching punch of UMass-Dartmouth’s Chase Hussey and Houde can propel Lebanon further into the postseason.

“Those guys are about even throwing-wise,” Woodward said. (Nate) “Perkins has done a great job in relief and Derek (Griffin)’s thrown the ball well recently. We’re sitting OK and I think we can go down there and move it around a little bit.”

Notes — Quietly having a strong season for Post 22 is third baseman and pitcher Matt Braley, from Andover’s Proctor Academy. Nicknamed “Hair” because of his flowing locks, the lanky hurler will likely be the team’s first option behind Hussey and Houde. “He doesn’t walk around with a lot of swagger,” Woodward said. “But at the end of the day, he’s going to be a heck of a ballplayer.”… Former Post 22 pitcher Josh Weiss attended the game. The Kimball Union Academy graduate is a finance and information systems major at the University of New Hampshire… Working to ready the field for play Sunday morning were Valley Turf Services owner Todd Holmes and employee Jarrod Grassi, also the Hartford High and White River Post 84 senior American Legion baseball coach. Holmes said his company recently sodded the Lebanon Middle School’s expansive athletic fields. During the sixth inning, Keene’s Nathaniel Taylor was thrown out at first base, over which he tripped. Taylor lay still for a theatrical moment and then strolled through the Lebanon dugout while shaking his head. He stopped to accept a bottled drink from a laughing Woodward before returning to the Keene side of the field. … Keene coaches Rick Stromgren and Jon Young played at Keene State with Post 22 junior coach Travis Pelletier and his predecessor, John Grainger, now the Hanover High coach… The current District A standings: Milford (14-2), Lebanon (11-4), Sweeney (11-5), Bedford (9-7), Concord (8-8), Goffstown (8-8), Laconia (5-10), Keene (5-11) and Plymouth (0-16).

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.