SALEM — Come state tournament time, experience and veteran leadership is often times what puts a good team over the top.
Depth and talent certainly helps, too, and this year’s Salem High baseball team checks all of those boxes.
Taking on a young Manchester Essex squad in Monday evening’s Division 4 playoff opener, the senior-laden Witches simply overwhelmed their non-conference opponents en route to a convincing 11-1 mercy rule win in five innings. They advance to take on No. 4 seed Saint John Paul II in Wednesday’s Sweet 16 clash (4:30 p.m.).
Manchester hung tough until a decisive fifth frame where the hosts erupted for six runs to seal the deal.
“We are a young team and we overachieved this year,” said Hornets’ coach BJ Weed, his team winning nine games this season despite rostering just two seniors. “We have a promising team going forward for the next few years which is awesome. This was a good experience for these guys going into next year to understand what it takes to win a playoff game; it’s a different magnitude.”
Senior Jordan O’Malley drew the start on the mound for Salem and spun a gem, going all five innings while allowing just four hits, one walk and fanning four on 73 total pitches. He was in command all afternoon, keeping the Hornets’ batters on their toes from start to finish.
“Jordan’s amazing,” said Salem coach Matt Hubauer. “Last year in the playoffs he had two amazing starts and when the time comes he’s just really clutch. He knows how to get the team behind him.”
Manchester’s lone run came in the fifth inning, when freshman Mikey Harris drew a walk and junior Adam Macleod sent him home with an RBI double to left. That sliced the Hornets’ deficit to 5-1 at the time, but they never got the chance to take the plate again as Salem exploded in the bottom of the frame to put the nail in the coffin on Manchester’s season.
“Adam (Macleod) has had a good year all year. He hit .365 and he came out of nowhere,” said Weed. “We weren’t sure where he was going to start in the outfield, but he established his starting spot and had a great year so I’m not surprised he did so well today.”
After chasing Hornets’ starting pitcher Connor St. Laurent — a sophomore who had a tremendous regular season en route to Cape Ann League First-Team All-Star status — after just one inning, Salem went to work on Manchester’s relievers, too.
The hosts plated two in the fourth on an RBI triple to deep left by Jack Tstoutsouras, who would later score from third on a wild pitch. But the fifth is where the Witches truly made their mark to walk away with the comfortable victory.
Cam Moran — who was inserted into the lineup after an injury to starting second baseman Yan Tejada Ruiz; “he’s day to day,” said Hubauer — got things started by drawing a walk. O’Malley then reached on a fielder’s choice, Xavier Pacheco singled to left, Jean Carlos Vasquez reached on an error, and Noah Thompson mashed a blooping RBI single to center field for the first run of the frame.
That prompted another pitching change for Manchester, but the new arm couldn’t slow down the Witch train, either.
Leadoff hitter Shea Christel singled to drive in another run, Rocco Ryan wacked a two-RBI double to center, Tsoutsouras and Kevin Soto drew back to back walks for another run, and Moran reached on an error to send Ryan home for the game-winning run.
“I’m super proud of them,” said Hubauer. “We did our job and didn’t take it lightly. It doesn’t matter where we’re seeded or where they’re seeded; it’s the playoffs and every team is going to be good. So we did our work and that’s what matters.”
“We haven’t really had a true No. 1 (pitcher) all year,” added Weed. “I think one guy had 25 innings and that was it. So we had to scrap it all year with our pitching, but we’re young pitching wise and with another year of advancement those pitchers are going to be even more dominant.”
Salem had scored three runs in the first inning on another RBI hit from Ryan, this one a triple to deep left, as well as an RBI ground out from Tsoutsouras and a hit by pitch with the bases loaded from Vasquez.
Ryan finished 2-for-2 at the plate with a pair of walks and three RBI to lead the charge overall. Christel also had two hits and scored twice while Pacheco had a pair of hits and a walk. Salem had nine hits and drew seven walks in all.
For Manchester, Macleod had two of his team’s four hits, with Chris Heim and Nick Glass adding singles in the setback.
Salem now moves on to take on familiar foe Saint John Paul II, an opponent whom the Witches topped in last year’s opening round on their way to an appearance in the state semifinal.
“I’m expecting them to come with a lot of energy and to want to win really badly, and so will we,” said Hubauer. “I know they’re a good ball team; I know they didn’t graduate many guys and they have a couple studs, so we’re just going to have to come in and play our game. It’ll be a long trip but we did it before and we can do it again.”