Luke Arsenault | McClelland Miscellanea

(Amesbury) Amesbury may not have played well…..but they played well enough.

Amesbury (12-4) got a walkoff, 7-6 win against Ipswich on Tuesday afternoon.

Jake Harring delivered the walkoff hit.

“It felt good,” he said, “but I’m not sure we should have celebrated that hard. We’ve got to be better.”

Unofficially, Amesbury had more errors (eight) than they had runs. Outfield drops, infield bobbles, you name it, it was happening this afternoon.

“It was an ugly baseball game,” said Amesbury coach Joel Brierley afterwards. “Someone had to win, and it happened to be us.”

Luke Arsenault homered in the second inning for Amesbury

It was just another tough loss in a season of tough losses for Ipswich (3-11).

“Today is the third game we’ve had the lead going into the seventh inning and lost in a walkoff,” said Ipswich coach Zack Lamkin afterwards.

The Tigers had seven hits and stranded ten baserunners.

Matt McGowan ended up with three hits and drove in two runs for Ipswich.

Trevor Kimball was the hard-luck starter for Amesbury. The AHS junior went five innings, allowing six hits and five runs (all unearned).

Amesbury, despite its defensive misadventures, put single runs on the board in each of the first four innings.

A Luke Arsenault homer to left accounted for the Amesbury run in the second inning.

Ipswich carried a 5-4 lead after five innings.

Things turned for Amesbury in the Ipswich sixth inning when centerfielder Drew MacDonald made a good catch and then a very good running catch. Those catches kept the Tigers from enlarging their one-run lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, Drew whacked a double to rightfield that drove in two runs and put Amesbury in front, 6-5.

Credit Ipswich for recovering.

Drew Lane walked leading off the seventh. Josiah Scarano pinch-ran and was bunted to second by AJ Pezza. Matt McGowan delivered the tying run with a single.

Amesbury came into this game averaging seven runs per game. They only had six going into their half of the seventh inning.

Luke Arsenault doubled down the leftfield line with one out to lead off the seventh. He was moved to third by a Tyler Bartniski sacrifice bunt. That set Jake Harring up for the game-winning hit.

“It was off the end a little bit,” said Jake of the game-winner. “I didn’t think it would go over his (rightfielder) head, until I saw his back turned.”

“For the most part we controlled this game,” said Coach Lamkin afterwards. “We battled today. It’s just a matter of finishing.”

Amesbury is currently #1 in the Division 4 MIAA power rankings. Staying there will eliminate any early-round bus rides in the post-season. Playing on the Amesbury High School field does have its drawbacks, however.

“This field is tough to figure out,” said Coach Brierley. “You would think that we would have an advantage since we practice here but not necessarily. Shea (Cucinotta) is a D2 shortstop and he still doesn’t know how to play this field.”

“That being said,” he added, “we still have to make the routine plays if we want to go far in the tournament.”

Cade Wetter scored two runs for Ipswich while Evan Stein had two hits.

Jake Harring, Drew Scialdone, Drew MacDonald, and Luke Arsenault each had two hits for Amesbury.

Drew Scialdone pitched two innings and picked up the W for Amesbury.

The weather was perfect.

Ipswich 0 1 3 0 1 0 1 = 6

Amesbury 1 1 1 1 0 2 1 = 7

(The pictures will enlarge.)

Shortstop Shea Cucinotta saw his first action today in Amesbury’s big win

Evan Stein scores the second Ipswich run

(Amesbury MA) Ipswich was coming off their first win.

Amesbury was coming off two tough late-inning losses.

Two teams trending in opposite directions.

And Ipswich kept trending in a positive direction with a three-spot in the top of the first inning.

But that’s where it ended for the Tigers.

Amesbury responded with ten runs in their half of the first inning and cruised from there to a 15-5 victory.

The mercy rule kicked in during the Amesbury fifth inning.

“We needed this after last week,” said AHS coach Joel Brierley afterwards. “However, we didn’t plan on beginning the way we did today.”

“We started today thinking that we would win,” said shortstop Shea Cucinotta post-game. “You just can’t take a team for granted. But we did pull together and get a victory.”

Special game for Shea because it was his first of the season. The Cape Ann League All-Star has been missed by the Indians (5-3) for sure.

“Now we have Shea back as well as our senior catcher (Tim Gilleo),” said Coach Brierley. “So we have a couple of weeks to put everything together before the tournament.”

The Amesbury hitting has been good and continued to be just that today.

The Indians had fourteen hits to go with the fifteen runs in only 4+ innings.

Eight of the nine AHS starters had hits. Luke Arsenault had three hits, while Trevor Kimball and Jake Harring added two hits.

The biggest hit in the game may well have been Jeremy Lopez’s in the big first inning. The Amesbury senior cleared the bases with a two-out triple to right.

That opening inning had all sorts of nightmarish ingredients for the Tigers (1-8). There were two outfield errors, two hit batsmen, and two walks. That’s a mix that will get a team in serious trouble for sure………and it did in the visitors.

Ipswich was coming off an exciting 9-8, last-inning, win over Pentucket. Their bats were still hot at the outset of today’s game.

Two batters in they had a run after Finn MacLennon doubled and Evan Stein singled. A few batters later Wes Smith drove in another run with a single. A fielder’s choice (Jake Reily) led to the third run.

Jeremy Lopez drove in 3 runs and scored 2 runs

Great start for Ipswich but it didn’t continue. AHS starter Drew MacDonald pitched clean innings in the 2^nd and 3^rd innings. Tiernan Bentley took care of things in the 4^th and 5^th innings.

The Indians needed a run in their fifth inning to activate the mercy rule. They got what they needed. Will Arsenault doubled. Josh Sorgini’s fielder’s choice moved Will to 3B. Tiernan Bentley’s single brought home the game-ending run.

“We came out here and we wanted to have some fun today and that’s what we did,” explained Drew MacDonald.

Drew claimed that he knew the source of Amesbury’s good hitting. “We’ve been having Jeremy’s older brother throw some BP. I think he’s our good-luck charm now.”

Shea Cucinotta was excited to be playing again after being injured playing football. “It was great to go out there with the boys. I missed it. Getting in for the next half of the season is going to be real good. I was a little rusty out there today, but it feels good to be moving again.”

Ipswich finished with six hits. Wes Smith had two of them to go with an RBI.

The Indians added three runs to their ten runs in the second inning. Jake Harring’s double brought in two of the runs.

Ipswich had single runs in the fourth (Finn MacLennon rbi) and the fifth (Drew Lane rbi).

Jake Harring, Shea Cucinotta, Jeremy Lopez, Drew Scialdone, Aidan Donovan, and Luke Arsenault each scored twice.

Jake Reily started for Ipswich and gave way to Drew Lane in the first inning.

The weather was splendid. Temperatures were in the 70’s with a nice breeze.

There will be a tournament at the end of the season. “It will be different this year because any team, no matter what their record is, can be in the tournament,” said Coach Brierley. “We want to be over .500 and deserve to be there.”

The tournament won’t START until June 15^th. Amesbury gets out of school on June 17^th. “Our guys are completely okay will playing after school is over,” said Coach Brierley.

Amesbury faced Ipswich at Ipswich a week ago. Drew MacDonald pitched a complete-game three hitter with seven strikeouts. AHS won, 11-0.

Nice running catch by Amesbury CF Cam Stanley.

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