NEWBURYPORT — For well over three hours, until there was barely any sunlight left, Pettingell Park was the hub of pure chaos.
When some order was finally restored, however, it was Gloucester escaping back to its bus with a gritty win over Newburyport, 5-4, in a 10-inning marathon. Trailing 2-0 in the top of the seventh, freshman No. 9 hitter Nolan Aiello came up with a clutch two-out, two-strike single to left that scored a pair and sent the game into extras. The Fishermen would then plate three runs in the top of the 10th to take a 5-2 lead, only to see the Clippers get the potential tying run to third in the bottom half.
But following a groundout, the Fishermen (3-2) finally crossed the finish line.
“Had this game happened last week, in the state we were in, we wouldn’t have won it,” said Gloucester coach Rory Gentile. “Our biggest obstacle so far has been this unspoken thing that’s very hard to teach. You have to be put in situations, you have to prove to yourself that you can do these things. And so today we were put in a situation where we’re playing an extremely good Newburyport team with an extremely hot pitcher on the mound. We’re down 2-0, and you figure that we’re dead.
“But we come out of that, with a freshman getting a two-run double to tie it, for me that’s more important than winning the game. We proved to ourselves that we can be in a tough spot, and fight out of it.”
There’s no denying that when the major moments arose, Gloucester (3-2) came up clutch each time.
For the first six innings, Newburyport’s Evan Luekens (7 IP, 2 ER, 10 Ks) was dominant on the mound, while on the other side the combination of Brayden Francis and Giacomo Martell were doing the same for the Fishermen. The Clippers (2-3) would finally break the scoreless affair in the bottom of the sixth, when Ray Arcand shot an RBI-single to center, followed by Jack Mercier laying down a pretty suicide squeeze bunt that scored Parker Cowles.
But down to their last strike in the top of the seventh, Aiello kept Gloucester breathing.
“He’s pitched great for us all year,” said Newburyport coach Ron Jordon on Luekens. “I like to give my guys a lot of rest, and he had five days off. Usually I like to get him six, but we knew it was a very good team today so we wanted him to go. But he did well. I tried to let him finish it up, and he was one strike away from doing it.”
Jack Sullivan ended up taking the loss for Newburyport, but pitched three solid innings of relief. The Clippers thought they had won the game in the bottom of the ninth, after three straight two-out walks loaded the bases for Arcand. The lefty took a pitch high and inside, and basically everyone saw and heard it hit him in the chest as it whizzed by — everyone but the home plate umpire.
The HBP would have plated the winning run, but instead Martell got out of the jam. To add insult to injury, the Fishermen got the leadoff man on in the 10th on an eerily similar HBP, and a pair of costly Newburyport errors led to it being a 5-2 game.
But even still, the Clippers kept fighting.
Ryan Sanchez led off the bottom of the 10th with a single, and two straight walks had the bases loaded with no outs. Ben Perron then drew a walk to force home a run, and a sacrifice fly from Connor Stick made it 5-4 with one out. But somehow after the sac fly — and the other runners had advanced a base — the Newburyport coaches believed the field ump had raised his hands to call the play over. A Clipper then stepped off the base thinking play was dead, and was tagged out to much confusion.
The Clippers pleaded their case, but to no avail. Two outs.
Colin Klapes stood 90 feet away at third base, but a groundout ended the game.
“It’s tough,” said Jordon. “The umpire call was tough. But it was still a tie game that we can win. Then we started to panic and threw the ball around a little bit in the extra innings. But it’s tough when you’re a kid in these high-leverage situations. It can be nerve-wracking to some of them. But you try to learn some lessons and move forward. They didn’t give up.”
Gloucester 5, Newburyport 4 (10 innings)
Gloucester (5): Jaylen Severino cf 4-1-1, Brayden Francis p 5-1-2, Nico Alves 3b 5-1-1, Matt Smith dh 4-0-0, Charles Amero lf/ph 1-0-0, Trey Marrone c 5-0-0, Giacomo Martell 1b/p 4-1-2, Austin Bouchie rf 2-0-0, Lucas Simendinger ph 0-1-0, Lukas Albano 2b 2-0-0, Ben Mello ph 1-0-0, Nolan Aiello ss 3-0-1. Totals 36-5-7
Newburyport (4): Connor Stick 2b/ss 4-0-0, Jackson DeVivo cf 5-0-0, Jack Sullivan ss/p 3-1-2, Parker Cowles 3b 3-1-0, Ray Arcand 1b 5-0-2, Jack Mercier dh 2-0-1, Ryan Sanchez ph 1-1-1, Ben Cook c 5-1-2, Colin Klapes rf 4-0-0, Ben Perron lf 1-0-0, Nick Garbarino ph 1-0-0. Totals 34-4-8
RBI: G — Aiello 2, Alves; N — Stick, Arcand, Mercier, Perron
WP: Martell; LP: Sullivan
Gloucester: 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 — 5
Newburyport (2-3): 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 — 4