ROCKLAND – The Nauset Regional High School baseball team sent two of Cape Cod’s best pitchers to the mound Thursday afternoon at Rockland Memorial Stadium, but it was simply not enough.
The #2-seed Middleboro High team (19-4) ousted the Warriors from the MIAA Division 2 South Sectional semifinals in a 6-5, 10-inning affair. Nauset finished the season at 18-5.
Paul Prue gave Nauset 11 scoreless innings in the MIAA South Sectionals but it was not enough as Middelboro prevailed over the Warriors Thursday, 6-5.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Southpaw Chris Holcomb, who hails from Marstons Mills but attends Nauset, got the starting nod from head coach Lou Elia but lasted only three innings but he was followed by fellow left-hander Paul Prue who ended up tossing six shutout innings of relief before Middleboro plated the winning run in the 10th. It was the third straight sectional walk-off win for the Sachems.
After a scoreless first, Nauset got on top early in the top of the second on a Kino Gray sacrifice fly deep enough to score Mike Doherty on the tag up for a 1-0 lead.
Middleboro came back in the bottom of the second frame, however, and jumped to a 3-1 lead.
Nauset did not lay down, however, and following a Willy Boyd walk in the top of the third, with his subsequent steals of second and third base, Sam Majewski drove him in with a basehit to narrow the deficit to 3-2. Majewski’s hit prompted a pitching change for the home team Sachems. With Majewski already on base, Nauset’s TJ King drew a walk to put two men on and Doherty squared around to bunt and laid down a beauty. Majewski came all the way home from second on the bunt to tie it at 3-3.
Middleboro simply would not relent, however, and came back to plate two runs on Holcomb for a 5-3 lead and that would spell the end of the season for the southpaw as teammate Prue came in to take over pitching duties. Prue got the Warriors out of it but Middleboro had succeeded in attaining, as noted, the 5-3 lead.
In the top of the fourth inning, Nauset leftfielder Trevor Ridley showed off some pretty nifty, heads-up baserunning skills to cut the Middleboro lead down to 5-4, but from that point forward to the seventh frame, Nauset remained behind, 5-4.
The Nauset Regional High School baseball team finished at 18-5 for the season.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
In the top of the seventh inning, perhaps sensing their season was in jeopardy of ending before they hoped it would, the Warriors buckled down and knotted the score at 5-5. Shortstop Gerritt Merrill was hit by a pitch, King reached on an error and Merrill advanced to third base to put men on first and third. Doherty came through once again by putting the ball in play to bring Merrill home for a 5-5 deadlock.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Prue shut the Sachems down once again and sent the game into extra innings.
Ridley led off the 8th inning with an opposite-field single but that was all the Warriors could muster.
And again, Prue shut down the Sachem bats in the bottom half of the inning.
Nauset’s last great bid to pull this one out in miracle fashion came in the top of the 9th inning when Boyd reached on an error and took second base to start things off. He advanced to third on an ensuing Majewski ground out and then Merrill once again manufactured a hit-by-pitch. With Boyd on third, representing the go-ahead run, Merrill stole second base to put two men in scoring position for the Warriors with one out.
But again, the hope for a rally fizzled.
Regardless, Prue silenced the Middleboro lineup in the bottom of the ninth, but the Sachems wanted no part of a season-ending loss and after he had thrown his sixth and final shutout inning of relief, Middleboro prevailed.
Merrill, Holcomb, Boyd, Noah Grevelis, Prue and sophomore Brennan Chisholm were all named Atlantic Coast League All-Stars for the regular season.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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