Baseball Falls in First Round of NE Tourney, Looks Forward to Andover

Big Red baseball travelled to Assumption College in Worcester, MA on Saturday to compete in the New England Tournament. Despite a solid pitching performance from senior captain Hunter Carey, Exeter bowed out in the first round with a 0-3 shutout loss to Worcester.Carey toed the rubber against the Hilltoppers and gave his team a chance to win, giving up three runs on five hits in a complete game effort. All three runs came in the first inning, as Carey labored early but settled in to turn in a solid effort on the mound. Unfortunately, Worcester’s pitcher silenced Exeter’s bats and outdueled Carey over the course of the game to hand Big Red a first round knockout.Exeter played solid baseball over all seven frames, concentrating defensively and minimizing errors. Despite this, Worcester’s pitcher was absolutely lights out, striking out an unbelievable fifteen Exeter hitters and allowing just one hit to senior Matt Girard in his complete game shutout. Although the team is disappointed with their day at the plate, the boys are looking to take out their frustration against Andover this weekend.“As a team we had a solid day in the field, and we didn’t make a lot of mistakes,” prep Peter Christie said. “After the first inning, when Worcester scored all three of their runs, we shut them down, but we weren’t able to get the bats to go our way. I think it gives us some drive to try and beat Andover on Saturday, especially since they won the league tournament.”Senior Max Eaton stressed that the team had to work on taking advantage of runners in scoring position and coming up with clutch hits. “On Saturday we were unfortunately confronted with an excellent pitcher who made very few mistakes, and was pitching an excellent game,” he said. “In the future we need to work on getting hits at the right time, and getting runs when they count. We need to play small ball, and we need to not allow unearned runs. If we focus on the little things on both defense and offense, we can win more games.”The boys will play their final game of the season against rivals Andover on Saturday at 2 pm. The two teams will meet for the third time this season in the rubber game of a three-game season series. Big Red and Big Blue first clashed in early May, splitting a doubleheader at Andover 4-2, 0-1, with seniors Carey and Curtis Arsenault both turning in impressive, complete game efforts on the mound. Baseball’s final game marks an important occasion in two different ways. Not only will the seniors play their last game in a Big Red uniform, but also coach Bill Dennehy will coach his final game for Exeter. Captain Carey will start on the mound, hoping to send his legendary coach off with a win against the team’s bitterest rival.“The last game of the year is usually for the seniors, but this year it’s definitely about Coach Dennehy,” Carey said. “I know everyone on the team is going to give it their all so that we can come up with our biggest W of the season for Coach.”“It’s bittersweet to be this close to my final game here, and I’ve only been here for three years. We all know how much it would mean to Coach Dennehy if we could win his last game,” senior Mac Flaherty agreed. “Hopefully we can get the bats going and crush Andover one last time for him.”