Taylor lifts Portsmouth over Bedford

BEDFORD - Keegan Taylor pitched a complete game, striking out 14, as the Portsmouth High School baseball team defeated Bedford 6-3 Monday.

Taylor retired the final 10 batters he faced, including a stretch of six straight strikeouts, and Bill Hartmann had a two-run single in the top of the sixth to give the Clippers (9-0) some breathing room. The win was the 72nd in a row for Portsmouth, three shy of the national high school record.

Joe Maher took the loss for Bedford (8-2), pitching 6 1/3 innings and allowing three earned runs on eight hits and three walks with five strikeouts. The senior also had one of the Bulldogs' two hits; Nate Harrington had the other.

In a matchup of the top teams in Division II, Bedford struggled defensively early and had trouble keeping up with Taylor late in the game.

"I don’t think it was Bedford baseball," Bedford coach Craig Blahnik said. "Portsmouth played well, they took advantage of our errors which is what a good team does. Totally took advantage. We had things going wrong and when they started, they kind of snowballed a little."

The snowball started in the top of the third inning. Bedford had tied the game at one in the second, but an error allowed Portsmouth's Connor McCauley to reach safely to lead off the inning. Aidan O'Leary followed with a walk and Quinn McCann singled to load the bases.

Matt Feeney then hit a ground ball to second baseman Lucas Olen, but Olen's throw to second hit off the glove of shortstop Zach Husband, allowing McCauley to score and the other runners to advance safely. Taylor followed with a sacrifice fly, scoring O'Leary, and McCann came  home on a groundout to make it 4-1.

"They were bad errors, they were costly errors," Blahnik said. "Those things can happen against not as good teams. But when you get a high-caliber team like this … ."

Bedford got a run in the third and the fourth to make it 4-3, but the Clippers extended the lead in the sixth. Taylor opened the inning by battling through an 11-pitch at bat for an infield single and a sacrifice bunt moved him to second.

The Bulldogs elected to walk Ricky Holt to keep the force on, but a wild pitch advanced both runners. Maher got Kyle DiCesare to ground out for the second out, but Hartmann's single brought both runners home and made it a three-run game.

"(Hartmann) is a guy who wants so badly to impact the game in a positive way," Portsmouth coach Tim Hopley said. "Keegan’s at bat to start the sixth inning, that at bat alone set the inning up. Ten- or 11-pitch at bat and he ends it with a hit up the middle. When a guy battles and battles and has an at bat like Keegan, you can’t let it go to waste. The guys picked him up."

Bedford had time to come back, but Taylor shut the Bulldogs down, striking out eight of the final 10 batters he faced.

"His fastball, it sneaks up on you after he throws a couple offspeed," Maher said. "It makes his fastball better. He already throws hard and when he gets it up like that, it makes him better. Once he started striking kids out, kids were just waving at pitches and making us look ugly."

The Bulldogs return to the field on Wednesday when they host Milford, while Portsmouth hosts Souhegan on Wednesday.