Grant Lavigne | McClelland Miscellanea

(Portland ME) Brainer Bonaci is the new guy in Portland.

No name on the back of his uniform but the 20-year-old played his second game with the Sea Dogs on Thursday afternoon.

Brainer’s presence wasn’t enough to help the team on this gorgeous afternoon but there’s always a bigger picture when it comes to the minor leagues.

Everyone is auditioning.

Trying to convince someone that AA Portland is below their skill level.

Brainer will get his chance to prove himself.

He is an infielder. You have to wonder how he fits in at the next two levels.

In this game, Portland was down 3-0 before even batting! Hartford’s leadoff batter Niko Decolati took starter Hunter Dobbins deep on the second pitch he saw.

The Sea Dogs got two back quickly but could never get even.

The celebrated prospects on both teams were missing.

#2 Zac Veen (injured), #3 Yanquiel Fernandez (inactive), #5 Drew Romo (inactive), and #7 Gabriel Hughes (inactive) were missing for the Yard Goats.

#1 Marcelo Mayer (injured), #6 Nick Yorke (inactive) were missing for the Sea Dogs.

However, I’ve done enough of the Portland games to know Marcelo and Nick by sight so that I could find them away from the playing field.

Today was a bright noonday game. I brought my Sigma 200m/F2.8. I could have brought the Sigma 600m/F5.6 but that F-Stop denies me the chance to shoot fast.

The sun was minimized by the hood on the camera. However, the sun was in the faces of the players coming my way so their visors shaded them. Nothing I could do about that position wise.

I experimented with some very high speeds to see if I could get the baseball in focus in pictures. I tried 1/4000 and got a blurry baseball. I’ll try even faster another time.

Despite some players being missing, I did get quite a few shots of #11 Brainer Bonaci and #12 Blaze Jordan. Both are twenty and very young to be at the AA level. The Red Sox bosses are obviously optimistic about the two of them to have them where they are so early.

Blaze is a 1B/3B with power.

Today was the day the area recreation departments came to Hadlock. There were sections of similar jerseys throughout the park. Might have been the highlight of the summer for some of the rec departments.

Slugger got in with a speedster today. The Big Guy appeared to be really trying to keep up but the kid, who may have a high school track career in his future, never slowed up. In fact, he never looked to see where Slugger was. The kid wasn’t going to be denied. But he was classy afterwards giving Slugger a high-five for his effort.

Continued thanks to Chris Cameron for arranging my visits. Being in the midst of a buzzing park with a chance to take pictures from a great vantage point is greatly appreciated.

Dylan Spacke was signing before the game

Grant Lavigne from Bedford (NH) High School homered for Hartford

In Exeter’s 3-run first Cody Morissette tripled and later scored the Hawks second run

Bobby Cliche pitched a five-hitter with seven strikeouts

(Manchester NH) The Exeter Hawks put a nice combination of early hitting and quality pitching together and won their second straight Division 1 state title, 6-2, over Bedford on Monday afternoon at the home of the Fisher Cats.

Exeter jumped all over Bedford starter Geoff Mosseau in the first two innings with four runs and seven hits.

“We talked before the game about setting the tempo and that is what we did early,” said 1B Tom Polhemus afterwards.

“Geoff (Mosseau) is a very good pitcher and we didn’t want him to settle in,” explained Exeter coach Kevin McQueen. “We had him at 52 pitches after two innings.”

Senior Cody Morissette paced the Hawks (20-3) getting three hits and driving in three runs. Cody had a triple in the first and a single in the second, driving in a run with each hit.

On the other side, the Bulldogs (21-2) were being held hitless by Exeter starter Bobby Cliche until two were out in the third inning.

Ryan Lee heads for 3B

Bobby ended up giving up just five hits and two runs. He struck out seven Bulldogs.

Bobby said that his curve was the key to today’s success. “The curve was good today. I had the fastball but if your secondary pitch isn’t there you’re screwed. Things were working today.”

The only glitch for Bobby was in the fourth inning when his pickoff attempt went past 1B Tom Polhemus allowing baserunner Joey Barrett to reach 3B with no outs. Joey would later score on Ryan Lee’s infield out.

The Hawks would get that run back in the sixth inning. Davis Leighton reached on shortstop Joey Barrett’s error and later scored on Cody Morissette’s second triple of the game.

Watching from the Exeter dugout

Coach McQueen talked about this game being a “white knuckler” as it played out. The Bulldogs’ sixth inning was certainly that. Bedford had a walk (Joey Barrett) and a two-out double (Ryan Lee) and a run-producing single (Peyton Murray). One run in, two on, down by three. A hit would cut the deficit to one with four outs left. But Bobby Cliché struck out Patrick Harrington swinging to end the threat.

Exeter stretched their lead to 6-2 in the seventh inning. It was all “small ball.” A walk, a hit batsman, and a suicide squeeze (Garrett Roberts) got it done.

Double play in the 7th

Avery Mosseau opened the last of the 7^th with a hit but was soon doubled off first after Zach Fletcher lined out to 2B. Nick Mokas’ pop to 3B Brady Green brought on Exeter celebrations.

Bobby Cliché: “It was definitely more comfortable to be working with the lead. I’ve worked with the seniors on this team for seven or eight years now. To end our time together with a state championship is amazing.”

Cody Morissette: “The reason I haven’t pitched since May is that I’ve had arm issues. I’m not sure what the problem was. I could have pitched for an inning today if needed. We have all kinds of good pitching on this team, so I knew that we’d be safe without me pitching.” Cody pitched all three tournament games last season as the Hawks were a perfect 21-0.

Grant Lavigne

The missing piece in what I’ve written so far is Bedford’s Grant Lavigne. Grant was recently drafted in the first round (#42) by the Colorado Rockies. Bobby Cliché retired Grant all three times (infield groundout, infield popup, and outfield fly).

I asked Coach McQueen about keeping Grant off the bases: “Keeping Grant off the bases is nothing short of a miracle! He’s a great hitter with a great future in front of him. In this game, he didn’t come up with a lot of runners on the bases.”

Joey Barrett scored two runs for Bedford. He also dislocated a finger sliding into third base.

Tom Polhemus had two hits, and RBI, and scored a run for Exeter.

The crowd was good although you wonder how many working folks can attend a 4PM game on a Monday.

Surprised by the small number of media in attendance. I was the only photographer in the dugouts during the entire game.

Having the Northeast Delta Dental Stadium evolve into part sun and part shade made for difficult photography, at least for this amateur!

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)