RallyNorth.net

Danvers baseball reaches Division 2 North final

Thursday, June, 05 By Phil Stacey
Sports editor

LYNN | Some would call it "small ball." Others would say it was opportunistic baseball.

In this instance, however, you can simply refer to it as The Danvers High Way.

The Falcons, who have become hardball masters at exploiting their opponents' smallest mistakes and capitalizing to the fullest, did so again last night | and in the process earned the program's biggest win in seven years.

Two | count 'em, two | successful suicide squeezes, a steal of home plate and the 1-2 pitching combination of Greg Ladd and Jeff Eldridge enabled the second-seeded Falcons to hold off Belmont, 4-1, in the Division 2 North semifinals last night at Fraser Field. Belmont, you might recall, is the team that knocked Danvers out of the tourney, 3-1, last season.

"It's not like we just started playing this way; we've been doing it all year," said senior captain Chris Perry, the team's cleanup hitter who successfully dropped down suicide squeezes in the fourth and sixth innings to score Jake Korthas and Bobby Dean, respectively. "It's how we win."

Danvers (20-3) now returns to the Division 2 North final for the first time since their state championship season of 2001. There, they'll face a dangerous Masconomet (18-5) team at LeLacheur Park in Lowell tomorrow night (7).

For the third straight postseason game, Danvers could only muster four hits, this time off  Belmont hurler Taro Gold. But for the third straight outing, they made those four base knocks count.

Hitless through three innings, the Falcons scored twice in the fourth on the first of Perry's suicide squeezes and a straight steal of home by Dean; then added two more in the sixth on another Perry squeeze and John Gikas' sharp RBI single to center.

"There were two things we had to do: put pressure on them (on the basepaths), and execute and get our bunts down," said Danvers head coach Roger Day. "At this point of the season, you have to do those things to be successful."

Once the Falcons got the lead, you could see the confidence in the dugout swell. "The team was more animated and hungry for this game than at any other point this season. You could clearly sense that," said Day.

A good part of that came from a film session the Falcons had the day before during practice. Day pulled out some highlight tapes from the Falcons' glory years of 1999-2001, a three-year span in which they won a state title, reached the finals another year and lost exactly three games in three seasons.

"Watching those 1999 and 2001 teams got us so pumped up. The emotion those guys showed made us want to do the same thing," said Ladd, a sophomore righty who picked up his team-high eighth win of the season last night.

Ladd turned in a gutsy performance, pitching into the sixth inning before giving up a single and a run-scoring double to Belmont's John Woodland, making it 2-1. With a sneaky fastball and accurate off-speed pitch, he struck out six and, despite putting a Marauders' runner on base in each inning, managed to pitch himself out of trouble most of the night.

"It's nice to have all of these upperclassmen behind me in the field, telling me to relax. All I have to do is throw strikes and they'll make the plays," said Ladd, who threw 49 of his 77 pitches for strikes.

"Greg hit his spots and threw strikes," said Day. "He gave us some great innings, pitching as deep as he did tonight."

Eldridge took off his catching gear and took the mound in relief of Ladd. He also made the game's biggest defensive play, cutting down the Marauders' own suicide squeeze attempt by barehanding Greg Palazzo's bunt down the third base line and flipping the ball to catcher Troy Thibodeau, who tagged out Woodland at the plate.

Feeding off of that momentum, Danvers tagged on two insurance runs in the home half of the sixth when Dean worked a one-out walk, took third on a hit-and-run single to right by Eldridge and scored on Perry's bunt. Gikas then plated Eldridge with his RBI single.

On Dean's steal of home in the fourth | his 16th stolen base this season | he did so on a two-strike count. Both he and assistant coach Brian Marshall (coaching third base) came up with the play, based on Gold's slow delivery to the plate. Dean got an enormous jump and slid into home before Gold's pitch sailed by Belmont (17-6) catcher Jon Smart.

"Has it sunk in yet? Not yet," said Perry of his team's date with Masco tomorrow night in the North final. "But once we get to the park, I'm sure it will all hit us."