BRISTOL, C.T. – The Salem 12-year-old All-Stars have more than been challenged over the last month, surviving elimination four times.
Come Wednesday, Salem will face its biggest challenge yet and fifth elimination game against the Massachusetts state champs from Bridgewater.
The two teams will square off at 1 p.m. with the winner advancing to Thursday’s New England Regional championship game against Maine.
“Our boys know every game could be the last, so we are going to trust our preparation and try to control our emotions for six innings, while blocking out all of the distractions,” said Salem manager Dan DeFrancesco.
On Monday morning, Massachusetts and Maine were in a tight 2-1 ballgame into the fifth inning before Maine erupted with five runs to come away with the 7-1 victory. Counting the win over Salem in the tournament opener on Saturday, Maine has given up just two runs in its two wins.
Mass. blanked Vermont 9-0 and then fell to Maine, while Salem defeated Vermont 6-4 in its second game.
“Massachusetts is a strong team, just like Maine,” said DeFrancesco. “They hit from top to bottom and middle off their lineup hits for power. We’ll need to play our best to beat them.”
The Mass.-N.H. match-up will most likely feature a pitching match-up of William Briggs for Salem against hard throwing left-hander Bryson Buker, who tossed one inning of relief in the loss to Maine.
DeFrancesco has said that Buker is probably the best player in the entire tournament, adding that besides his strong pitching, he has a powerful bat and also plays a terrific center field.
“After playing Maine and Vermont, and then seeing Maine play Massachusetts, our boys are confident they can compete with all teams in the bracket,” DeFrancesco said, “but realize we have to play strong to win.”
Juggling the pitching around
In Sunday’s win, Briggs started but struggled a bit with his control and came out after 50 pitches, facing one batter in the third. He gave way to Owen Griffin, who pitched the final four innings to get the win. Griffin, as well as Colton Johnson, who went the distance in Saturday’s loss, will not be eligible to pitch on Wednesday, but would be eligible to pitch should Salem advance to Thursday’s game.
“We took William out right at that fifty pitch mark, so he’ll be live for our next game and then we also have Kevin (McDonough) and Nolan (Dupuis),” said DeFrancesco after Sunday’s win. “We’re still in a good spot. I say it again and again that we have a bunch of guys who go out and play as hard as they can. What I love is when somebody is not having their best game, there’s someone else right there to pick you up.”
Putting it all together
In Saturday’s loss, Salem pitched well, played error-free ball but couldn’t get the timely hit, including going 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. In Sunday’s win, the pitchers combined to walk five batters and hit another, while the offense left nine runners on base, squandering a number of opportunities.
“I wouldn’t say that we have anyone slumping, but we usually hit more consistent throughout the order,” said DeFrancesco. “We just have to continue and believe in our process. Our defense continues to be good and I believe that our best baseball is actually in front of us.”
Salem again played error free ball in the win, which included three nice plays from second baseman Patrick DeFrancesco, one on a groundball, one on a line drive and another covering first on an attempted bunt.
“(Patrick is) a good second baseman. He can do his job and he can field the ball good,” said Griffin.
Small move pays off
Throughout districts and the championship series, DeFrancesco has kept basically the same batting order. But before Sunday’s game, he made a small change, switching Dupuis and Grayson Buckley from the second to the fourth spot, and vice versa.
“We slotted Nolan in the fourth spot and I told him it wasn’t about being the big clean-up hitter, it was more about giving him a chance to see the pitcher more,” said DeFrancesco.
That strategy paid off. Dupuis who had been struggling a bit with the bat, crushed a pitch to the bottom of the right field fence driving in the first run, after Vermont had taken a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Dupuis scored on a RBI single by Brayden Miller, and those two at-bats totally changed the game around.
“It was dumb luck I guess as he just missed a home run and that really got his confidence back,” said the manager. “He’s a professional hitter. He absolutely has great skill and it’s probably the first time in his life that he’s going through a slump. I’m confident that he’s getting out of it and he’ll be fine. That (hit) was big for him and really big for the team.”
A cornhole break
After coming away with the win on Sunday, Salem planned on taking things slow with their off days on Monday and Tuesday.
“We’re going to have fun. We’re not going to worry about baseball so much and just have fun,” said Griffin.
Griffin said that when the team isn’t on Breen Field playing or practicing, the members of the team are back in the dorms playing cornhole tournaments, noting that the other hero from Sunday, Jacob Guerrero-Lomba is the leader in that contest.
DeFrancesco wants his boys to take a little “competition” break.
“We’ll obviously practice, but we’ve got to find something to do and get away. We talked about having a movie night and getting a DVD Player,” he said. “These guys have been competing at everything. They compete putting their uniforms on, jumping over the dorms so I want them to lay off the competing for a day.
“We’ll watch some baseball, but the goal is to get them to relax,” added DeFrancesco. “We’ll do something fun but I’m sure it’ll end in a competition. They are great kids, we are having a great time and when this is over, I know I’m going to really miss them. We’re going to have fun for two days but we’re still going to be working.”
Twitter: @JamiePote