Tag Archives: Tommy Connors

May 7, 2013 · 9:18 pm

Connor MacRae (13 K’s) pitches Newburyport past Amesbury 4-1

Chance Carpenter scores the fourth Newburyport run

Connor MacRae

(Newburyport) Have some sympathy for Amesbury, would you!

Saturday afternoon the Indians faced the hitting machine (20 hits) known as North Reading. This afternoon they faced the K-Master Connor MacRae and fanned thirteen times.

Newburyport (7-4) defeated Amesbury, 4-1, on Tuesday afternoon in weather that needed no improvement.

Andy Reidy pitched very well for Amesbury recording eight strikeouts and allowing only six hits.

Senior Connor MacRae not only had the 13 K’s but also had two hits and scored a run for the Clippers.

Amesbury (6-6) errors in the third and fourth innings led to Newburyport runs and questionable base-running snuffed out a promising Indians rally in the last inning.

Ryan Short gets third on an infield error

In the third inning, Ryan Short (2 hits/RBI/run scored) doubled over Devlin Gobeil’s head in centerfield. Third baseman Zack Fitzgerald then fumbled Ian Michaels’ grounder and Ryan reached third with one out. Five days ago the suicide squeeze failed against Manchester-Essex. Not today. Brian Fiascone put a bunt in play and Ryan scored the Clippers first run without drawing a throw.

In the fourth inning two more Newburyport runs would score. A walk by Connor Wile was followed Connor MacRae’s deep-shot double to right. The throw in from the outfield (John Pesci) sailed over third base allowing Connor Wile to score and Connor MacRae to take third. Connor MacRae came home when Mike Sweeney flaired a single over Amesbury’s drawn-in infield.

Down 3-0, Amesbury collected a tainted run in the fifth inning. Zack Fitzgerald reached on shortstop Colby Morris’ bobble to lead off the inning. Zack got to second on Matt Napoli’s single and scored on two passed balls by NHS catcher Connor Wile.

The Clippers added a run in the sixth thanks to the speed of Chance Carpenter. Chance pinchran for Colby Morris. When the speedy junior took off for second, pitcher Andy Reidy threw to first. By the time first baseman Shawn Bannon’s throw reached second, Chance was easily there. Ryan Short’s single to left center drove home the Clippers’ fourth run.

John Pesci reaches third as Tommy Connors single heads for centerfielder Ian Michaels

Amesbury’s questionable base-running happened in the last inning. The Indians had two runners (John Pesci and Adam Ivancic) on with one out down three runs. Tommy Connors singled sharply up the middle to centerfielder Ian Michaels. John Pesci tried to score but Ian Michaels’ throw home was there in plenty of time to record the second out of the inning. So instead of bases loaded with one out, the Indians had two on and two out. Connor MacRae then K’d Devlin Gobeil to end the game.

Newburyport has now won four straight and five of their last six games. They next play on Thursday at Georgetown.

Andy Reidy allowed six hits and struck out eight.

Amesbury has now lost two straight after winning three straight. They will be hosting Triton on Thursday.

Tommy Connors and Matt Napoli led Amesbury with two hits each.

I distinctly heard Amesbury assistant coach Thom Connors tell his team as they watched Newburyport go through pregame practice, “Good arm in center.”

Devlin Gobeil had the Golden Sombrero.

Connor MacRae struck out at least one Indian in each inning. He K’d the side in the third.

Andy Reidy struck out five Clippers in a row including three straight in the fifth inning.

Former AHS principal Les Murray found time in his busy schedule to take this game in.

Newburyport boxscore

Amesbury boxscore

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

Zack Fitzgerald fields a grounder as Ian Michaels races to third

Zack Fitzgerald reacts to a high throw

Colby Morris looks for the handle

dust or high heat?

Shawn Bannon

Mac Short

Connor Wile

Undefeated North Reading coasts by Amesbury 18-0 in Cape Ann League baseball

Ryan McAuliffe scores on a wild pitch

Riley Warnock struck out six in four innings

(Amesbury) Undefeated North Reading is good…….very good.

The Hornets (11-0) won their 19th straight game, extending back into the 2012 season, as they coasted past Amesbury, 18-0, on a windy Saturday afternoon.

The visitors whacked twenty hits against three different Amesbury pitchers (Zack Fitzgerald, Kyle Arseneau, and Matt Napoli).

The Indians (6-5) made a game of it for two innings before the defending D3 champs put up fourteen runs over the next two innings.

There is no mercy rule in Cape Ann League baseball so this game went seven innings. There is a mercy rule in the state tournament.

URI-bound Riley Warnock went four innings for NR giving up two hits and striking out six Indians. The fourteen-run cushion prompted Hornets coach Frank Carey to use Scott Allan over the final three innings. Scott only allowed one hit.

Amesbury’s best chance to score was in the third inning. Adam Ivancic and Tommy Connors both singled with one out but Riley Warnock got consecutive grounders to third baseman Tom Day to end the threat.

Zack Fitzgerald catches a popup

Zack Fitzgerald, making his third start, held NR hitless through two innings.

The third inning didn’t go nearly as well for Amesbury. The Hornets collected seven runs on five hits. The Indians didn’t do themselves any favors when they couldn’t make two plays on foul balls.

The Hornets sent twelve men to the plate. Ryan Sanborn had two RBI while teammates Colby Maiola, Ryan McAuliffe, Alex Schaefer, and Dennis Rollfs had one each.

North Reading came back with seven more runs (on six hits) in the fourth inning. Four of those runs were unearned as rightfielder John Pesci dropped a two-out fly ball. Ryan McAuliffe, Shane Driscoll, Ryan Warnock, and Keith Linnare collected RBI.

The final three innings had a bit of the pro wrestling flavor to them as North Reading stopped being aggressive on the base paths. Doubles became singles. Wild pitches led to no base advancement. Run scoring happened when there was no other option. With that approach, the Hornets stranded nine baserunners over the last three innings while picking up four runs.

NR coach Frank Carey has 708 wins over a 46-year career

NR coach Frank Carey now has 708 wins in a 46-year career. His teams have won four state championships.

He told me that he had a team win 33 straight games over several seasons.

He also told me that last year’s championship was a surprise because they didn’t have much power. This year has been different. It certainly doesn’t hurt the Hornets to have Riley Warnock and Ryan McAuliffe back pitching. Those two accounted for twenty-one of the Hornets twenty-two wins in 2012.

You would want to believe that North Reading has the team to make a serious run at a second consecutive Division 3 state championship.

Shortstop Ben Cullen leaps for a high bouncer

I saw Newburyport win the D3 title against Pioneer Valley in June of 2011. Ironically, the game was on the same day as the Boston Bruin’s championship parade after winning the Stanley Cup.

I learned that Tommy Connors will be attending Endicott College next year to play football. Tommy had two hits today against Riley Warnock.

Amesbury next plays at Newburyport on Tuesday afternoon. The Hornets will host D4 champs Georgetown on the same day.

The sun may have been shining but the wind negated the warming effects considerably.

North Reading boxscore

Amesbury boxscore

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

Colby Maiola (#10) scores the fifth NR run

A try for a forceout in the third inning

Riley Warnock

NR catcher Kevin Linnare

Mike Brandano tracks down a foul pop

Scott Allan

Amesbury rallies for two in the eighth to defeat Manchester-Essex 8-7

Adam Ivancic (00) is mobbed after scoring the winning run

Tommy Connors drove in the winning run for Amesbury

(Amesbury) Tommy Connor’s two-out single in the eighth inning gave Amesbury an exciting, 8-7, comeback win over Manchester-Essex on a very cold and windy Monday afternoon in Cape Ann League play.

Junior Andy Reidy pitched a complete game five-hitter and struck out fifteen Hornets.

ME coach Bob Garrett used four pitchers (Sean Desmond, Brandon Bartlett, Kevin Carter, Corey McCollum) and while they only allowed three hits among them, they also surrendered fourteen walks and hit four batters.

The walks and HBP’s enabled the Indians (3-2) to have baserunners and scoring chances galore. The missing ingredient was timely hitting but that showed up in Amesbury’s two-run eighth inning.

In that inning, a two-base throwing error by shortstop Cory Burnham allowed John Pesci to reach. John took third on a passed ball and scored on Adam Ivancic’s RBI single to left. Adam took second with one out and third on another passed ball. After a popout by Ben Cullen, for the second out, Tommy Connors was the batter. Two innings earlier Tommy popped out with the bases loaded with two outs. Not this time. The Indians senior slapped a single to centerfield sending Adam home with the game winner.

Sean Desmond doubled in a run in the eighth

The loss was a tough one for the Hornets because they had gone ahead by a run in the top of the eighth inning. After Jake Fitzgerald singled with two outs, Sean Desmond reached the base of the centerfield fence with a run-scoring double.

But the Hornets (1-3) couldn’t hold the lead.

ME ended up with seven runs and got six of them in a wild third inning as they sent eleven batters to the plate. The Carter brothers (Craig and Kevin) drove in two of the runs but the rest of them were unearned. The Indians had three errors (Mac Short, Andy Reidy, Patrick Scanlon) and two wild pitches.

And there could have been more runs but Andy Reidy K’d Sean Desmond and Henry Gedney with the bases loaded to end that inning.

Amesbury stranded sixteen runners including the bases loaded in three different innings.

Another Amesbury run

Ben Cullen and Devlin Gobeil each scored two runs for the Indians.

Devlin had an RBI grounder in the first inning.

In the third inning, both Zack Fitzgerald and Devlin Gobeil scored on a two-out wild pitch.

Brandon Bartlett’s wild pitch allowed Mac Short to score in the fourth inning.

A two-base throwing error by Cory Burnham enabled Ben Cullen to cross with Amesbury’s fifth run coming in the fifth inning.

A wild pitch by the Hornet’s Kevin Carter sent Devlin Gobeil home with the tying run in the sixth inning.

Manchester-Essex arrived late for the start of the game. On a very cold, windy day those extra 15-20 minutes of waiting were tough to take.

Andy Reidy struck out fifteen Hornets

ME qualified for the state tournament last season for the first time in twenty years.

ME will be hosting Rockport tomorrow. Amesbury hosts Lynnfield.

I can guarantee you that Andy Reidy won’t be doing any pitching after going eight innings in cold weather. I wonder how many pitches he threw?

You knew that the game was a “little long” when the Amesbury softball team was on hand for the end of the game. They played and returned from a game in Rockport!

Amesbury boxscore

Manchester-Essex boxscore

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