Runners on second and third. Two outs. Andover Baseball down 5-4. Batter up at the plate. This was Andover’s chance to take home a comeback victory against Bridgton Academy.
A strike-three call unfortunately dashed Andover’s hopes, and the team fell for the first time this season on Saturday after letting up three runs en route to a three-run differential.
On Wednesday, the team could not regain momentum and lost 6-3 against Tabor.
Andover fought to come back against Bridgton, scoring one run in the second, one in the fourth and two in the fifth inning. Heading into the seventh inning, Andover found itself down 5-4.
After a walk kicked-off the seventh, DeWitt Burnham ’16 stepped in to pinch run and stole second. Matt Ilalio ’14 pitched in with an infield hit and stole second to put two runners in scoring position with two outs. Matt Whalen ’16 struck out to end the closely-contested game.
“We hit well, we executed really well and I’m proud of the way we fought back in the end. But what got us in the end was our sleepwalking through the first couple innings,” said John Simourian ’16.
Against Tabor, the coaching staff and team put together four goals for the game: score six runs; one three-run inning; seven combined walks, hit-by-pitches, errors or stolen bases; and have 50 percent quality at-bats. The team estimated that its winning percentage would rise to 90 percent if the team reached this goal.
Unfortunately, Andover was not able to accomplish any of these goals. The offense could only muster three runs, despite a strong outing from the pitchers in a 6-3 loss.
“There really wasn’t a whole lot of offense behind our pitchers, and there wasn’t really much fielding behind them either — I think there were three errors behind [Thomas] Lane ’15 alone… We just didn’t play well as a team. We didn’t play together [against Tabor],” said Sam Zager ’15.
Despite the losses, Andover remains optimistic about the season.
“It’s still early in the year. We all know that it’s a work in progress.… We’re going to go out to practice tomorrow and work on our hitting and build on today’s game. We had a tough time today hitting the ball, but [Tabor] had a great guy out there today,” said David Gaetano ’15.
Andover faces a perennially strong and talented Belmont Hill team on Friday and looks to reverse its performance after the two recent losses.
