Bennett's surprise steal gets Souhegan baseball to first final in 12 years

MANCHESTER - Owen Batchelder saw Thomas Bennett break for home before anyone else, and did his best not to show it.

The left-handed hitting Souhegan High School junior tried to stand in the box like it was any other pitch coming from Goffstown pitcher Nate Proulx, remembering what happened the last time he was in the box when a teammate tried to steal home.

"The first time, I bunted and fouled it off, so I learned my lesson," Batchelder said. "I saw him coming right away and I figured I'm just going to stand in the box so I could sell it. I think it took the pitcher off-guard. It's the first inning, nobody saw that coming."

The Sabers' first batter in the bottom of the first inning of Thursday's Division II semifinal, Bennett singled to right field and went to second when the ball was bobbled in the outfield. A groundout to second by Bryce Reagan moved Bennett to third, and as Proulx get ready to make his first offering to Batchelder, the Souhegan senior noticed that the Grizzlies' pitcher wasn't looking his way.

"I started creeping down the third base line and I saw (Proulx) was going real slow and taking his time," Bennett said. "I took about two or three hops down the line and I didn't hear anything. I just kept going. Lefty batter up, I knew I had a place to slide in, so I just sent it."

It's a play that Souhegan coach Bill Dod has given Bennett the OK to make.

"We try to coach the kids to be aggressive offensively and defensively," Dod said. "Thomas has had the green light from me since his sophomore year and that's because I have respect for him as a baseball player and his knowledge of what to do and when to do it.

"No one in this facility had a clue what he was doing. That's what I try to teach all the time, that they have to know this game and know what they can do."

Batchelder was so stunned by the play that he thought it might have affected the rest of his at bat, which ended with a groundout.

"I think nobody saw it coming," he said. "You typically see that later in games. I was caught off guard. I think it threw off my at bat. No excuse for the groundout. It's just a great play by Thomas and that's just the way he plays. He's scrappy, he goes for everything. That's the winning run, so it's a big run."

Bennett knew the risk at the time, and how much he'd be second-guessed if he didn't make it.

"You look like an idiot," he said of if he'd been out. "I knew I had a place to slide (with a left-handed batter up). I guess the closest place on the plate, which is where I got my foot in. I was clearly safe, but it was close. (Third base coach Mike) Beliveau had no idea. In the third inning, he came up to me in the dugout and said 'way to make me look good, kid.' "

It ended up being the only run of the game, as the No. 2 Sabers held on for a 1-0 win over the No. 3 Grizzlies. Souhegan starter Joe Grassett pitched a complete game, and with some help from his defense, stranded nine Goffstown runners.

"I was just trying to get outs and do my thing, just keep throwing strikes and keep them off balance," Grassett said. "It’s fantastic, especially senior year. That’s how everyone wants to go out."

The win puts Souhegan in the championship game for the first time since 2004, when the Sabers fell to St. Thomas in the Class I final. The year before, Souhegan beat Hollis Brookline to win the program's only championship.

The Sabers will have a shot at another against No. 1 Portsmouth at 5 p.m. on Monday at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester.

It would cap what has already been a memorable season, as Dod set the New Hampshire record for wins by a coach earlier this season. He's won three championships - two with Bishop Guertin in 1982 and 1987 - in a coaching career that began in 1968.

"I have coached a long time and I've had some of the greatest individuals who you just couldn't ask for better," Dod said. "I have three of the greatest seniors that I have ever coached. They have run this program this year, and I'm so proud of the three of them. They have been role models for the others to follow and I'm just so proud of them."