St. Thomas Aquinas baseball team ousted in Division II semifinals

CONCORD - In baseball, all it takes is one inning with a crooked number, and that can be enough to get the job done.

Second-seeded Hollis-Brookline used two of those such innings and defeated No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas, 9-3 in a Division II semifinal game Wednesday at Memorial Field.

The Cavaliers scored four runs in the first inning, and another four in the third, which was more than enough for Hollis-Brookline to advance to Saturday's Division II state championship.

"They just found a way to get the extra base hits with guys on base today, and we just fell shy of doing that," STA head coach Carson Cross said. "That's what's going to make or break the game, especially with those four-run innings."

Cross added, "it was a very competitive game, it's what you want to see out of a playoff game," he said. "I think the score was a little bit wider than what the game was. We had a chance to score every inning, and as a coach, that's all you can ask for. They stayed it in the whole time even though it was 8-1 the majority of the game. It didn't seem like it the way we were battling."

Hollis-Brookline will face No. 8 Plymouth in Saturday's state championship at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester.

Cade Murphy had three hits and an RBI for the Saints, while Timmy Avery had an RBI single in the sixth and Thaao Papakonstantis had an RBI double in the seventh for the Saints.

Here are the highlights from the Saints' loss.

Saints strike first on Murphy's first of three hits

After scoring 20 runs in a quarterfinal win over John Stark, the Saints continued the scoring in the first.

Skowron was hit by pitch, and after Timmy Avery flew out, Charlie Covert reached on an infield single.

Murphy then laced an RBI single to left, scoring Skowron from second base for an early 1-0 lead.

"I was seeing the ball really well," Murphy said. "I was spinning off the off-speed and that was huge. Just thinking about runners in scoring position, and what I can do with the next pitch. Just always looking ahead."

Cross said Murphy delivered huge hits in the second half of the season, which was ia reason he made the Division II all-state team.

"The last three weeks of the season, he was hot as can be at the plate," Cross said of Murphy. "Today, just carrying that confidence again, it's huge for us, it's huge for the lineup going into next year. Another guy who can be a .400 hitter and drive in multiple runs all year long. It's huge to see him grow like that throughout the playoffs."

Grondin rebounds from shaky first inning

Grondin allowed five hits, walked two and allowed four runs in first inning. The second inning was much different.

Grondin allowed another two hits, but matched that with two strikeouts along with a fielder's choice to hold the Cavaliers to scoreless inning.

Grondin struck out Hollis-Brookline starting pitcher Zackery Lussier and Dylan Morelli in the inning.

St. Thomas misses out on opportunity to post crooked number

Ultimately, Hollis-Brookline putting up crooked numbers in two innings - four in both the first and third, is what swung the game in their favor.

The Saints, who were trailing 8-1 at the time, had an opportunity to post a crooked number of their own and cut into the lead in the fourth.

St. Thomas' first three batters all reached base to begin the inning - Grondin and Ryan Gould walked, and senior Devon Paquette singled to load the bases with nobody out.

But, the Saints couldn't scrape across any runs on Hollis-Brookline relief pitcher Charles Hale, who was in his first inning of work.

Hale struck out Skowron looking, Timmy Avery swinging and Covert looking to end the inning and keep the score at 8-1.

"They blanked us, and those are the swing moments in games," Cross said. "You have a chance to take it all away from them, and tie it up, but they hold a zero there and pulls the momentum."

Saints return experienced group next season

With only two seniors departing the Saints - Paquette and Ryan Storm, the Saints will return a good amount of this season's team.

"I think moving forward now that we've ben together for a couple of years now, with a lot of talent, we're definitely going to come in more experienced," Murphy said. "We've been here twice, now three times for some of us. We made it very far in every playoff season we've had recently, so I think we're going to be prepared for next year definitely."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hollis-Brookline beats St. Thomas Aquinas in Division