RallyNorth.net

Newburyport falls in first round for fourth year in a row

Friday, May, 30 By Dan Guttenplan
Sports editor

Rediscovering the cruelty of tournament baseball is becoming an annual tradition for the Newburyport baseball team. It's much like Memorial Day in that it occurs at the end of May and marks the unofficial start of summer.

The Clippers took their fourth consecutive first-round exit in the EMass. Division 3 North tournament yesterday, this time falling to the lowest seed in the bracket | No. 23 Stoneham.

No. 10 Newburyport (13-8) allowed four unearned runs in the eighth inning in a 5-1 loss.

The abrupt ending to Newburyport's baseball season closes the book on an inspiring season that included a shared CAL Division 1 title | the team's 19th in coach Bill Pettingell's 37 years with the program. But it also consummates a string of five seasons in which the Clippers have posted a regular-season record of 70-30 with four CAL titles and a postseason record of 1-5 with no appearances beyond the quarterfinal.

"I'm embarrassed," Newburyport coach Bill Pettingell said. "I don't know what it is. We used to go deep. But to go out in the first round again ..."

Pettingell didn't need to finish his thought. Yesterday's first-round loss may have been the most surprising of the last five.

Stoneham came into the game boasting a 4-15 record and was without the services of its No. 3 and 4 hitters, who also happened to be the ace pitcher and shortstop. Those athletes | Stoneham's two captains | recently found trouble and were dealt Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association-imposed suspensions for the remainder of the season.

The Middlesex League bottom-feeders, who qualified thanks to a .500 record against Division 3 foes, learned of their tournament fate earlier this week. Veteran coach Bill Seabury, whose 400-plus career victories place him more than 100 below Pettingell, had the players vote on whether they'd like to accept the tournament invitation.

"I figured without our best players, we wouldn't have much of a chance," Seabury said. "We gutted it out. Because of the situation we're in, this was one of our greatest wins. And we've had a lot of great wins."

So has Newburyport. And many came as recently as this season. This year's Newburyport squad staggered to a 1-4 start, showing its youth in the opening weeks. The senior-scattered roster marked by the abundance of sophomores and juniors resurrected its season seemingly out of nowhere, slaying the dragons of CAL's Division 1 en route to a shared title.

"To me, the state tournament is a reward for a great season," Pettingell said. "And these guys had a great season. We accomplished a lot. But it's still tough to go out as a loser in this situation."

In truth, the Clippers weren't playing with a full deck of cards either. Perhaps the team's most clutch hitter, Kevin Holmes, has been on crutches for the last two weeks due to an ankle injury. Starting catcher Kevin Crossman broke his leg during Wednesday's pre-tournament tune-up after colliding with teammate Billy Eiserman while attempting to catch a pop-up.

"It was bad," Pettingell said. "I stopped practice after that. I can't help but think we were a down team because of what happened. Sometimes something like that bothers a team. I don't know if we ever bounced back."

Sophomore pitcher Kyle McElroy was just fine yesterday. He pitched seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball. What he didn't expect was to have to return to the mound for an eighth inning, which occurred due to a lack of timely hitting from his teammates in the late innings. The Clippers stranded McElroy on third base in the seventh inning after his leadoff double.

"We should've won in the sixth and the seventh," Pettingell said. "We played very unintelligent baseball."

Whether it was fatigue or a lack of focus, the Clippers weren't the same team in the top of the eighth. Stoneham's first two batters reached on errors. Then McElroy struggled with his control with a hit batsman and a walk. By the time Stoneham's Steve Keith hit a bases-loaded double, the Clippers had the look of a beaten team.

"We got a few breaks," Seabury said. "We're not a better team than them. But bounces went our way. They didn't go our way all year. But for a four-win team to beat a first-place team, it's a great win. It shows anything can happen in the tournament."

There's no need to remind Newburyport of that. For two months each season, the Clippers steadily improve until the wins start to come fast and furious as a result of their consistent, fundamental approach to baseball. But come tournament time, when one day can decide whether or not a season is successful, the Clippers haven't caught a break in five years.

It's a cruel animal, this tournament baseball.