WORCESTER – Two southpaw pitchers were the story of Saturday afternoon’s legion baseball matchup between Shrewsbury Post 397 and Northborough Post 234.
The low-scoring, high-intensity game was close throughout, but the Shrewsbury team produced just enough timely hitting to outlast Northborough, eventually winning the contest by a score of 2-1.
Northborough’s Cooper Hagen was sharp from the start, retiring seven of the first eight batters he faced. Over six innings of work, Hagen struck out six and limited the normally explosive Shrewsbury offensive attack to two runs.
“I knew this was a good team… I knew they were tough hitters. I knew I had to mix it up as much as I could – get them as off-balance as possible. I knew I had to do that with my off-speed and pitches that work best,” Hagen told the Community Advocate.
Although Shrewsbury’s bats looked out of sync for most of the game, the team managed to cobble together some offense in the bottom of the third inning. It happened quickly: Andrew Peris hit an infield single, stole second base, and sprinted home after James Benestad sharply singled the ball into right field.
In the bottom of the fifth, Peris and Benestad were involved again. After Deegan Miller doubled, Peris successfully bunted down the first-base line, sending Miller to third. An RBI groundout by Benestad gave Shrewsbury an insurance run; they led 2-0 after five.
“He’s one of our best players,” Shrewsbury head coach Frank Vaccaro said of Benestad, who had both of the team’s RBIs. “He’s been great all year. [He’s a] leader, quiet, [and] sets a good example. He’s been hitting all year.”
“We got big hits in big spots,” Vaccaro added. “I knew it was going to be a tough game – their pitcher [Cooper Hagen] is exceptional.”
Luckily for Shrewsbury, Tedy Cove – their lefty starter – was equally as incredible, pitching 5.1 innings, striking out four, and surrendering one run. Cove cruised through the bulk of the game; in three of his first four innings, he retired the lineup in order.
If Cove could have an inning back, it would likely be the sixth. After allowing back-to-back singles to open the inning, Cove would hurl an errant pitch. Northborough had their best opportunity of the night: second and third with only one out.
Jackson Gamache capitalized, singling to right to cut the lead to 2-1. Shrewsbury turned to pitcher Ryan Walton to escape the runners-on-the-corners, one-out jam.
On one of Walton’s first pitches, Gamache took off for second base. Post 397 catcher Pat McManus fired the ball across the diamond to nail Gamache by about one step. The play was deflating for Northborough as they went into the seventh still behind Shrewsbury.
“I told our catcher – if he steals, you throw him out. This isn’t little league. Throw him out,” Vaccaro said while also commending the Post 234 team for “fighting until the end.”
Down to their last three outs, Northborough kept fighting. After Cole Jones (who went 2-3 on the day) singled, an error and groundout put the tying run at third base with two outs. Northborough grounded out and couldn’t capitalize.
“The kids did a great job of bringing a playoff mindset today and every inning doing the best they could to apply pressure. We hit some hard balls at people, but in the end, I thought every inning we competed and gave ourselves a chance to win,” Northborough head coach Ken MacDonald said.
“Tip your hat to Shrewsbury – they made more plays than we did,” he added.
The legion baseball zone playoffs are double elimination. Northborough has an opportunity to turn their season around on Sunday, roughly 24 hours after their loss to Shrewsbury.
“I think we all need to focus on what’s important. We need to focus on making contact with the ball,” Hagen said.
“Hopefully we can use this to motivate ourselves in a positive way. We can’t let this one loss turn into two,” MacDonald explained.
Shrewsbury will also compete on Sunday and face Leominster.
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