METHUEN – It took just under 3.5 hours to complete the seven-inning high school baseball game played between Lawrence and Methuen which began in late Tuesday afternoon before ending in the cold, rainy conditions at 8:15 p.m.
And this marathon game had it all.
There were seven combined pitchers used. Those seven combined to walk 11 batters and hit five more. There were four defensive errors. Seventeen runs were scored on 20 combined hits, and there was also a long controversy with defensive obstruction called against Lawrence at second base.
When all of that came to fruition, the Lancers walked off the muddy field with a season opening 11-6 victory over the Rangers, who fell to 0-3 on the young season.
“It was a heck of a game. These guys battled through the thick and thin,” said Lawrence head coach Alberto Abreu. “A couple of walks, a couple of hit by pitches and a couple of things that we need to clean up, but we came out with the dub. I just loved the energy that we had today.”
Lawrence scored six runs over the first two innings and led 8-4 going to the last of the sixth when the Rangers made things interesting. Drew Lachance laced a two-run single to the right-center gap cutting the deficit to two. That hit pushed Abreu into calling Jose David Abreu from his shortstop position to the mound and he closed the door, retiring six of the seven batters he faced, including leaving Lachance at second after two groundouts and a strikeout. Lawrence then added three more runs in the top of the seventh.
“(Jose) came in and shut the door. He showed us what he has. It’s good to know what he’s made of,” said the coach.
Offensively, the Lancers were led by Malvin Jimenez and Angel Castillo, who both had three hits and combined to knock in five. Jimenez had RBI singles in the second and fourth innings, before adding a double in the sixth and Castillo had a two-run single in the top of the first and then delivered a RBI single in the second.
“(Castillo) had a great game. He’s a senior and we have big expectations for him. He did well tonight and he’s going to have a big season for us,” said Abreu.
Trailing 3-1 and 6-2 after the first and second innings, Methuen came back scoring two runs in the fourth and then two more in the sixth, but fell short mostly due to leaving 11 runners on base including nine in scoring position.
“I was happy with the compete level, the ability to stay in the game, fight back and have good at-bats,” said Rangers’ head coach Cam Roper. “I thought we had good at-bats all game. We just left way too many guys on base, but (Lawrence) also made some good defensive plays so you have to give them some credit. They made more plays than we did. There were two equal teams out there and they made more plays than we did.
“You can’t dig yourself in a 6-1 hole in the second inning. That’s just so tough. You can try to come back and all that but being in a six-run hole is really tough against anybody.”
Methuen’s No. 8 hitter Yorbi Franco had a strong game going 3 for 3 with a pair doubles, a walk and scored a run.
“He’s a kid with a boatload of talent. He came to the United States a few years ago from the Dominican Republic and didn’t speak a lick of English. I’m so proud of him,” said Roper. “The kid is unbelievable. He works so hard. His English is fantastic now and his baseball skills have exponentially grown and so has his understanding of the game. The raw talent was always there but it was just a matter of putting it all together and now we’re seeing that this year.”
Twitter: @JamiePote