Dover High School baseball offense stalls on opening day, eager to get back on field

DOVER — From coaches to players, the Dover High School baseball team took full accountability following Monday afternoon's 5-0 loss to Merrimack in a Division I season opener.

"I thought we definitely did not play our brand of baseball today," Dover head coach Scott Dubben said. "One hundred percent, that's on me. I feel like I didn't have the team prepared to come out and play opening day at home like we should have been."

Dover had chances, couldn't make most of opportunities

The Dover offense didn't collect a hit until the fourth inning — a single to left field by Grant Davis. Doubles by Ryder Aubin in the bottom of the fifth and the bottom of the seventh were the only other hits by the Green Wave offense.

Also, with chances to get back into the game, Dover failed to drive in any runners in scoring position, going 0-for-8 in those instances.

"Especially, offensively, our at-bats, we weren't prepared for that one," Dubben added. "Again, on me, for this game for sure."

"Scoring no runs, it's clear we have to come out here and we have a lot to work on," Aubin said. "It makes it real obvious for us, exposed some of our flaws and really showed that we weren't ready for the game."

Aubin added there were some positive takeaways, such as pitching, putting better at-bats together later in the game and the team's defense, which plagued Dover early, picked up later.

The score might signal Merrimack was in complete control, and not to take away a good overall performance from the Tomahawks, but Dover was one hit away from tying the game, or taking the lead.

"I definitely think this game wasn't out of out reach at all," Aubin said. "Two runs in the first, a little bit weird, good teams respond within the first couple of innings there, and when we didn't, we put ourselves in a bigger hole to make it 5 (to zero), and at that point, it starts to feel like you put a lot of pressure on yourself to make a good at-bat. And when you put pressure on yourself is when you don't end up hitting well."

Merrimack able score conventional and unconventional runs

Merrimack scored two in the first inning, with the first run scoring on a balk on starting pitcher Charlie Kubiet. The second run came when Aubin tried to catch Eliot Medlock stealing third, but the ball trickled into the outfield, allowing Medlock to score.

"It happens early on in the year, I thought (Merrimack) scored some fluky runs early," Dubben said. "Stuff that I don't think that's going to happen throughout the year too much, but it happens and you've got to respond to it."

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In the bottom of the third inning, trailing 3-0, Dover had the bases loaded after Ryan Sullivan walked on six pitches. Unfortunately for the Green Wave, Daniel Conrad, who fouled off two pitches, struck out to end the inning, leaving the bases full.

Again with a chance to cut into the deficit, Colby Russell hit into a double play - a sharp liner right at the second base. Alex Cook was doubled up attempting to get back to second base, ending the inning and stranding two runners.

In the fifth, with Aubin on second, Sullivan and Kubiet struck out back-to-back, and in a similar situation in the seventh, Aubin was stranded at second base to end the game. Dover left three runners on over the sixth and seventh inning, just unable to get that big hit.

"Rough one," Jacob Mangum said. "We didn't play our level of baseball, and we've just got to be better. We've to grit out (at-bats) in the box ... we'll be bounce back."

Merrimack, as Aubin later described, hit the ball to open spaces to score its runs. Aside from the two runs in the first, an RBI single in the second made it 3-0, and another two-run single in the top of the fifth scored two more runs for the Tomahawks.

"I think we went through our order pretty much at the same rate they did," Aubin said. "At the end of the day, the same amount of people get the same amount of at-bats on each team, and they scored five more runs than us. It shows how many more runners we left on base multiple times, and leaving the bases loaded."

Mangum credited Aubin's two double performance, and said he and the rest of the team have to do a better job at grinding out at-bats.

"It's got to be more of a team effort," Mangum said.

"(Ryan Mainey), I thought did a great job making pitches with two strikes in traffic," Dubben added, not to take away from Mainey and the Tomahawks. "We just didn't put the ball in play and put pressure on (Merrimack) with guys on base. And that's high school baseball, if you don't put pressure on the defense, then you're not going to score runs. If you go up to the plate looking for walks, or looking for the other team to hand you something, it usually doesn't work out."

Dover not fazed by one bad outing

Mangum added that one bad game isn't going to derail the Green Wave, who have made the D I tournament three years in a row.

"We know who we are, we're not worried about that," Mangum said. "We've just got to trust that we're a good team, and we have to play like it and it comes with a lot of confidence. We'll be there, we'll get there."

Luckily for Dover, it had a chance to jump right back into action at Salem on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

"We'll iron it out, and I feel confident we're going to bounce back," Dubben said. "We don't have any time to sit back and cry about it."

"We've got to walk into (Salem) with confidence," Aubin said. "We can't be holding our heads about this game, and thinking that we're not the baseball team we thought we were, because we absolutely are. One game doesn't define us."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Dover High School baseball team unhappy but unfazed by opening defeat