CONCORD — Trouble in the field and missed opportunities at the plate proved to be costly for Hanover High as it fell 7-2 to Kingswood in an NHIAA Division II baseball semifinal at Memorial Field on Wednesday afternoon.
Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the third inning, the No. 3 seed Bears found themselves in a jam with runners on first and second. The No. 2 seed Knights proceeded to take advantage of a throwing error to tie the game.
After a subsequent balk, Kingswood took a lead it would grow and not relinquish, advancing to the state final.
“We had some opportunities to get out of the inning, and we gave them those extra outs. You know, against a good team like that, when you give them extra outs, often that’s the turning point in the game, and I think that’s really what happened,” Hanover coach John Bagnulo said.
Bears senior Wyatt Daigle led the offense with three hits on the day. Junior Gabe Sundrud had two hits and drove in a run, and seniors Jorgen Drent and Jacobi Marotti had a hit each.
Senior Alex Boone got the start for Hanover and threw five innings, allowing seven runs while walking and striking out seven. Senior Jack Lobb threw one scoreless inning in relief, striking out one and walking one.
“I’m really proud of these guys,” Bagnulo said. “I’m certainly going to miss the seniors who are moving on. Most of them have committed the last several years of their lives to baseball, so it’s really tough for me to see them move on like this, but I love those guys.”
The Bears had a golden opportunity to blow the game open early, loading the bases with no outs after two walks and a single up the middle from Daigle. However, Knights senior starter Nate Cloos escaped the inning largely unscathed, considering the jam.
The senior struck out senior Alexander Muirhead to get the inning’s first out. Hanover still took a 1-0 lead on a Kingswood fielding error, but Cloos got the next two batters out to escape the jam.
Hanover’s lead did not last long as Kingswood tied the game in the bottom half of the frame. Cloos walked to lead off, stole second and moved to third on a bunt. Then, on a groundout, the senior played a cat-and-mouse game with Drent, the Bears’ shortstop, and ended up beating the throw to home plate to tie the game at 1-1.
After a scoreless second frame, which included Hanover squandering an opportunity with the bases loaded and two outs, the Bears took another one-run lead in the top of the third. A ground single to left field from Sundrud made the game 2-1 in Hanover’s favor, but that was the last lead the Bears would hold.
Kingswood took the lead in the bottom half of the frame. With runners on first and second, the Knights tied the game on a weak grounder back to Boone that he threw errantly to first, allowing a run to score. A balk before the next pitch gave Kingswood a 3-2 lead.
The Bears stranded a runner on third in the top of the fourth inning, and their deficit grew in the bottom half after a tough grounder to short with the bases loaded allowed two more Knights runs to score.
Trailing 5-2 in the top of the fifth, the Bears once again stranded runners in scoring position, this time at second and third. Kingswood added two more runs in the bottom half of the inning, and that was pretty much all she wrote for Hanover.
Although the outcome was not what Bagnulo and his squad had hoped for, he thought the Bears should take solace in the work they put in and their accomplishments this season.
Looking to the future, Bagnulo acknowledged he will head into next season with a young squad in need of development, especially on the bump, as this season’s roster had eight seniors.
“We’re going to have to try to get more of a staff in terms of pitching — we’re losing three or four really good pitchers,” he said. “My big goal in the offseason will be to try and develop some of these younger pitchers and get us back to a place where we have three or four that can go out there and compete every week — I think that’s our biggest need.”
