NEWBURYPORT — Evan Luekens arrived at Pettingell Park on a chilly Wednesday afternoon thinking he was just going to huddle in the dugout, cheer on his teammates and maybe go track down a foul ball or two that went out of play.
But his day was about to get a lot more stressful.
You see, the original plan was for Newburyport to send out one of its two staff aces, Charlie Forrest, to handle Wednesday’s game against Pentucket, with Luekens getting the quick turnaround start Thursday night under the lights in Rockport. But four batters into the game, with the bases loaded and one out, Forrest felt a pain in his elbow and couldn’t go further.
So in stepped Luekens.
“It caught us off guard, but we had to think about today and not tomorrow,” said Newburyport coach Mark Rowe. “So we went to Evan, who would have started the game tomorrow, and he came in and did exactly what I needed him to do.”
Only a sophomore, Luekens came in an unexpected — and high-leverage — situation and got the job done. An error allowed two unearned runs to score in that first inning, but after that Luekens was absolute nails to lead Newburyport to a 3-2 win. The righty tossed the final 6.2 innings of the game, scattering three hits with no runs while striking our four batters to just two walks.
“My mindset was to just get everyone out,” said Luekens. “I wanted to get out of (the first inning) without any runs but they scored, which you can’t do much about it. But coach told me after that to just prepare like it was a start, so that’s what I did.”
Pentucket (1-7) nearly tied it in the top of the seventh.
With one out, starting pitcher Jake Woodsum sent a fly ball to right field that was dropped for an error and saw him get to second base. Newburyport (8-3) then decided to intentionally-walk Endicott commit Trevor Kamuda to make it first-and-second, one-out, sending Clarkson commit Kyle Ventola to the plate. Ventola sent a hot grounder to third that was cleanly fielded by Clipper third baseman Parker Cowles, who stepped on the bag for the force before unfortunately showcasing his arm too much with a throw that went well over teammate Owen Tahnk’s head at first.
At the end of all the mayhem — and the two errors — it was second-and-third, two outs.
But that’s when Luekens bore down and got a fly ball to left to end the game.
“Listen, we just have to start accumulating wins,” said Rowe. “It was not pretty today, we’re still struggling a bit, but it’s a division win and we needed it. We’re still going for that CAL title, and the only way we’re going to do that is by winning games, no matter how ugly.”
On the other side, Woodsum pitched an equally great game for the Panthers.
The junior went the distance on the hill, surrendering just three hits with three strikeouts while none of the runs he allowed were earned either.
The Clippers scored two runs in the second to tie it up off a throwing error and a Jack Sullivan sacrifice fly, and took a 3-2 lead in the fourth after another error allowed the inning to continue longer than it should, and ended with a Steve Lawton sac fly to score Eli Suchecki.
“Jake really pitched great today,” said Pentucket coach Al Mottram. “He had good command of all of his pitches, and he did a great job of keeping us in it. That’s a good lineup over there and he held them in check.”
In his first year at the helm, Mottram has taken over a young — but improving — team with an equally young pitching staff.
Woodsum has taken the reigns of the rotation, but it’s been a major help having a senior captain like Ventola behind the plate. Besides being a “coach on the field” for his young pitchers, Ventola also boasts a strong bat and went 1-for-2 on Wednesday with a double and two walks.
“There’s a good reason why he’s going to Clarkson,” said Mottram. “He’s as steady as they come behind the plate and he’s been a great leader for us. We have a younger pitching staff and he’s done a terrific job with them.”
Newburyport 3, Pentucket 2
Pentucket (2): Nick Kutcher ss 4-0-1, Jake Woodsum p 4-0-0, Jayden Pabst ph/rf 2-1-0, Trevor Kamuda cf 2-1-1, Kyle Ventola c 2-0-1, Alex Robertson 1b 4-0-0, Braeden Irvine 2b 3-0-0, Justin Bartholomew rf 1-0-0, Caleb Meisner 3b 3-0-1, Luke Pergola lf 3-0-0. Totals 28-2-4
Newburyport (3): Jack Sullivan ss 2-0-1, Steve Lawton rf 3-0-0, Max Puleo dh 2-0-0, Owen Tahnk 1b 2-0-0, Jackson DeVivo cf 2-0-0, Evan Luekens p 3-0-0, Parker Cowles 3b 2-2-1, Eli Suchecki lf 3-1-1, Ben Cook c 1-0-0, Ben Perron pr 0-0-0, Connor Stick 2b 0-0-0. Totals 20-3-3
RBI: N — Sullivan, Lawton; P — Robertson
WP: Leukens; LP: Woodsum
Pentucket (1-7): 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 2
Newburyport (8-3): 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 — 3