Beverly-Lowell sweeps past Cambridge Post 84 in season opener

CAMBRIDGE − A young Cambridge Post 84 squad got off to a sluggish start during Wednesday's opening night doubleheader with visiting Beverly Lowell Post 389/750 in American Legion baseball action at Don Coss Stadium.

Post 84 dropped Game 1 by a lopsided 14-3 final score, followed by an 8-1 final score in the nightcap to start the new season at 0-2.

Despite the disappointing start, veteran Post 84 manager Ron Antill expressed confidence his young team will improve as they gain experience.

"It was a rough opening night for sure," Antill expressed. "But we have an extremely young team, and we made a lot of mistakes tonight. But we are going to clean it up, and by the Don Coss tournament over the 4th of July this is going to be a much different team.

"We just got to gets guys in the right positions, get some roles defined," Antill added. "This is for the most part a first year team, and tonight was the first time they have played together. So we will have some growing pains, that's to be expected. But we will put in the work necessary to get through these early season struggles."

Beverly Lowell took early control in Game 1, quickly jumping out to an 11-1 victory after just three innings of play and coasted to the season opening victory.

Caleb Campbell took the mound for Post 84 in Game 2 and proved effective in slowing down the Beverly-Lowell offense to keep his team within striking distance.

Cambridge trailed by a slim 3-1 margin through three innings, with Campbell holding the visitors to the one run on just four hits.

Lucas Cobb delivered an RBI single in the second inning off Campbell to take the early 1-0 lead.

"Caleb pitched very well for us," Antill offered. "If we had played a little better defense behind him it would have been a much tighter game. He made some good pitches. We just have to give our pitchers more support by playing solid defense behind them. Tonight we weren't able to do that."

Those defensive struggles by Post 84 popped up in the fourth inning, as Beverly-Lowell took advantage of three costly errors to push across four unearned runs to extend the lead out to 6-0.

With the lead, Beverly Lowell starter Wade Pauley was effectively shutting down the Cambridge offense. Pauley allowed just one hit, a second-inning single by Bryce Murdock through four scoreless innings of work.

Pauley collected the pitching win, working six scoreless innings and allowing only the second-inning base hit with seven Ks and five walks.

Campbell took the loss, allowing eight runs on seven hits with three strikeouts, four walks and three hit batters.

Meadowbrook's Easton Eibel, who was playing shortstop for Beverly-Lowell, closed out the scoring in the seventh inning. Eibel ripped a two run triple off Braylon Lowery who came on in relief of Campbell, down the first base line into the corner to give Post 389/750 a 8-0 lead.

Cambridge was able to avoid the shutout, scoring a run off Jacob Huffman who relieved Pauley in the seventh inning. Mason McQuain reached on a fielder's choice and came around to cross the plate on Tyson Mercer's RBI ground out for the final score of 8-1.

"Beverly Lowell is a very good team, just a very good team," Antill continued. "You have to give them credit, but we are going to be a good team also. We have some work to do to get there, but we will. I'm confident in that."

NEXT − Cambridge travels to Parkersburg on Saturday, with the game being played at St. Mary's High School due to renovations on Parkersburg's field.

KSutton1@gannett.com; @KevinDJsports

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Cambridge Post 84 suffers rough opening night in American Legion baseball