North holds on to beat Merrimack

NASHUA – Joe Breen drove in two runs and the Nashua High School North baseball team scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to beat Merrimack 5-3 Friday at Holman Stadium.

Breen went 3-for-3 with a double and Jake Mellin pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing three unearned runs on two hits and three walks to get the win for the Titans (2-0 in Division I).

Tom Hudon suffered the loss for Merrimack (2-1), giving up two earned runs over six innings on five hits and four walks.

“It was two very good pitchers,” Merrimack coach Ryan Anderson said. “I think the Mellin kid kind of kept us off balance. Tom Hudon did a nice job. He didn’t have his best stuff. It was pretty much a pitchers’ duel until some bad breaks there in the fifth inning.”

North came up in the bottom of the fifth clinging to a 2-1 lead thanks to Breen’s RBIs and two double plays that kept Merrimack from breaking the game open. After the Tomahawks got the first two outs, Brandon Karkhanis and Breen hit back-to-back singles to put two aboard for the Titans.

Adam Lieth followed with a flyball to right field that Merrimack’s David Shoonmaker got underneath, but at the last moment, lost in the sun. The ball glanced off his glove, scoring Karkhanis to make it a 3-1 game.

Hudon hit Cam Duval to load the bases and North’s Matt Fortin singled to drive in two more runs before Parker Jamerson popped up to end the inning.

Staked to a 5-1 lead, Mellin got some help in right field as Kyle Turner made a nice catch on a flyball by Pat Parker. Merrimack’s Ryan Dupont drew a walk, but was erased at second on a ground ball by Ian Urquhart for the second out.

Chris Kinney followed with a ground ball to second, but the ball got through North second baseman Mike Maise to keep the inning going. Ian Theriault popped up into shallow center field, and reached safely when the ball dropped in, scoring Urquhart to make it 5-2.

Shoonmaker added a RBI single, scoring Kinney to cut it to 5-3 before North coach Wil Henderson brought Turner in to relieve Mellin. Turner struck out Jackson King to end the inning.

“We certainly didn’t play as clean defensively as we would like to,” Henderson said. “The big thing, when we did make some mistakes, we found a way to stop the bleeding. In past, that group of kids has allowed the bleeding to continue, so we were fortunate in that.”

For Merrimack, there was some frustration over the missed opportunities. Aside from hitting into two double plays – one with two runners on – the Tomahawks ended five innings with a runner in scoring position and left eight men on base, including two in the top of the seventh.

“We couldn’t seem to get that two-out hit that we needed,” Anderson said. “Right there at the end was an example. If we get a ball to fall in … We had a couple double plays earlier, too, where, give them credit, they played good defense and turned those.”

“Those were huge,” Henderson said of the double plays. “That kept the game in our favor and kept us feeling good about ourselves. I think it was 1-1 in both situations and that was very big.”

Both teams return to action next week, as North heads to Salem on Monday and Merrimack hosts Bishop Guertin on Tuesday.