Merrimack's Tom Hudon pitched a complete game Monday.
MERRIMACK – The Merrimack High School baseball team got solid pitching and defense and some timely hitting to beat Pinkerton Academy 4-3 on Monday in a Class L game.
Tom Hudon pitched a complete game, striking out four while allowing two earned runs on nine hits and four walks.
Hudon also drove in two runs while teammate Ryan Dupont went 2-for-4 with a RBI and a run scored.
Ryan Feeney pitched six innings and gave up four runs on nine hits and four walks with two strikeouts for Pinkerton (2-4), which threatened in the sixth inning, but came up short.
“We played good defense, but there’s still some things we’ve got to learn on offense,” Merrimack coach Jim Davala said. “We had some good defensive plays and some timely hitting today.”
The Tomahawks (2-3) started the timely hitting in the first inning, after the Astros went up 1-0 on an unearned run in the top of the frame. Chase Distasio led off with a walk and Dupont followed with a single before Colby Hoyle’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third. Hudon blooped a single just out of the reach of Pinkerton first baseman Zach Mathieu, scoring Distasio and Dupont to make it a 2-1 game.
Pinkerton tied the game in the third, when Mathieu drove in Tyler Pacheco with no one out in the inning. But Hudon regrouped and got out of the inning without further damage.
Merrimack loaded the bases with two out in the fourth, but Pat Parker flied out to end the inning.
“Parker, he hits a lot of fly balls right at somebody and they don’t drop in,” Davala said. “Those haven’t happened for us. It will come around. That’s the big thing I try to keep these guys, be persistent and keep after it each and every time.”
Merrimack shortstop Chase Distasio fields a ground ball.
The Tomahawks retook the lead in the fifth. Ian Urquhart led off with a walk and David Schoonmaker sacrificed him to third. Andrew Pineau followed with a hard shot down the first base line that got past a diving Mathieu, scoring Urquhart.
One batter later, Dupont singled off the glove of shortstop Cody Lessard, and Pineau scored from second. The Tomahawks looked like they might continue the inning, but Hoyle was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.
“Everything is teaching,” Davala said. “Base running, hit-and-run, laying down bunts, how to take the extra base. There was a key point there with two on, we laid down a bunt to advance the runners. We looked for a key hit and it was there. That’s how we have to play. We have to advance runners.”
Merrimack put runners on second and third in the fifth inning, but couldn’t get them across.
Pinkerton answered with a run of its own in the top of the sixth. Derek Bird led off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Hudon was able to retire the next two batters, but Chris Guerrora singled to bring home Bird to make it 4-3.
Pacheco reached base on an error and Guerrora went to third on the play, putting runners at the corners for Mathieu. The first baseman had made good contact his previous times up, but Hudon got him to swing at an off-speed pitch, which he tapped back to the mound to end the inning.
The Astros got a one-out single in the top of the seventh, but Hudon retired the final two batters – the last on a strikeout – to end the game.
“He’s gutsy and he has good baseball sense,” Davala said of Hudon. “Sometimes he tries to be a little too aggressive, but I’d rather have that than not be aggressive at all.”
Merrimack's Colby Hoyle reaches out to tag Pinkerton's Andrew Curran.
Merrimack returns to action on Wednesday at Trinity.