NORWICH — The Hanover High baseball program has yet to lose this spring. Not only against NHIAA Division II opponents, but also versus a pack of 12-year-old boys who challenged the Bears to race around the bases following Thursday’s 11-1 defeat of Merrimack Valley.
Jackson McBride and Oliver Sperry represented the big kids and started at home plate. The younger mob departed from first base. McBride caught his shouting, laughing foes coming around third and used an all-out sprint to emerge victorious.
Hanover (10-0) hasn’t often needed late heroics this season. The Bears have outscored their 10 opponents by a combined 83-21, and only defending state champion Hollis Brookline and archrival Lebanon have come within three runs of eighth-year coach John Grainger’s team.
“The majority of our runs against are because of walks, errors and hit-by-pitch,” Grainger said. “Today, we have a kid throw the ball away, and then (Merrimack Valley) scores its run because an outfielder dives for a ball but doesn’t go after it all out.”
Hanover, which has never won a state baseball title, has developed into one of the state’s strongest programs under Grainger. The Bears regularly win 10 or more games a season, field a JV team and raise oodles of cash for player extras, transportation and field maintenance.
They’ve also made a habit, however, of coming up short in the postseason.
A 2018 trip to the semifinals is the furthest the Bears have advanced since they reached the 2005 title game under previous coach and athletic director Mike Jackson. Despite a steady drip of future college athletes, Hanover hasn’t had that one or two stars on its roster to push it over the hump.
Which makes it intriguing that Grainger, who lost 10 seniors to graduation last spring, thinks this season’s egalitarian bunch could be the program’s first to raise championship hardware. Senior pitcher and first baseman Sam Sacerdote and junior shortstop Jackson McBride are among the Granite State’s best, but after that … well, they’re mostly multi-sport athletes who play hard and smart.
Some years, especially if a team’s pitching and defense are stellar, that can be enough. Past powerhouses such as John Stark and Hollis Brookline are down a bit. The major unknown for Hanover is Dover parochial school St. Thomas, which entered the weekend undefeated. The Saints and Bears don’t meet in the regular season.
“I think it’s us and St. Thomas,” said Grainger, whose team could possibly host Lebanon in the first round. “In years past, there were seven or eight teams that could win it. This year, maybe three or four?”
So what might give these Bears a better chance of snapping the title drought? Grainger, a former Keene State star and college assistant coach, said they’ve posted the best fielding percentage of any of his Hanover teams, and that while he doesn’t have an ace luring college and pro scouts, his pitching is deeper and he plans to use it differently.
If Hanover’s staff was one player, Grainger said, it would be boast strong enough statistics to make him an all-state player. Sacerdote, who’s committed to play at NCAA Division III Bowdoin College, and juniors Jake Toulmin and Freddy Mierke are known quantities, followed by senior Ian Smith and freshmen Alex Boone and Allie Muirhead.
“A lot of kids have thrown, and no one has really struggled,” Grainger said. “If we start a guy in the playoffs and he falls apart, I’m not worried because I’ve got four more guys I can bring in.”
That depth has prompted the coach to use his arms in shorter bursts. Asking one pitcher to go six or seven innings in the playoffs hasn’t worked particularly well in past years, so the Bears will try pitching by committee this time around.
Hanover’s seniors last year included athletes such as Colin Pierce, Casey Graham and Ian Hedgepeth, each of whom are playing college sports, although not all on the diamond. Popping to the surface this spring, however, have been freshmen starters Jojo Drent (right field), Wyatt Daigle (left field) and Hayden Avard (catcher).
The latter, who threw out two would-be base stealers and picked off two others during a victory over Bow, appeared from nowhere on the first day of tryouts. Well, he came from Brattleboro, Vt., and Grainger had no idea who he was.
“He throws the ball well, but there’s still work to do on receiving and blocking the ball,” Grainger said. “He’s pretty much caught the whole season.”
An even more unlikely story might be McBride, who was cut from the Hanover varsity as a freshman but a year and a half later was plucked from an 800-player Florida showcase by a renowned East Cobb, Ga., club organization. He played 45 games for one of the organization’s 80 teams last summer. Grainger projects the animated Etna resident as a college player, although at which level remains to be seen.
That situation will play out down the road. Coming up fast, however, are the playoffs and Hanover’s latest crack at title glory.
“On Monday, we (host) Plymouth and St. Thomas goes to Hollis Brookline, so that’s a big day, and we’ll know more after that,” Grainger said. “But we’re the only team that’s consistently giving up one or two runs a game.”
Notes: St. Thomas senior lefthander Sam Grondin threw a no-hitter against Kennett a month ago. … McBride’s father, Sam, became a Hanover assistant this season and is Dartmouth College’s senior managing director for athletics fundraising. … Former Hanover star Ben Williams, who transferred to Connecticut prep school Avon Old Farms, suffered an upper-body injury and has not committed to play college baseball, Grainger said. … The Bears regularly employ an infield shift against left-handed batters, Grainger finding that few are able to hit to the opposite field.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.