Huskies lose heart-breaker to No. 2-ranked Don Bosco

By Bob Fenske

editor@nhtrib.com

HUDSON — Nashua-Plainfield baseball coach Levi Miller valiantly battled his emotions Thursday night.

He lost.

Miller had just watched his team come precariously close to pulling off the ultimate tournament shocker before second-ranked Don Bosco scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning to come away with a 4-3 victory in a Class 1A district semifinal game.

“I’m so, so proud of our guys,” Miller said. “They bought into what we wanted to do, they believed and forget our record, they were a great baseball team.”

Miller paused for a moment as his eyes moistened and tried to collect himself.

“These guys … they laid the foundation,” he said. “They’re really hurting right now … but what they did tonight, they should be proud.”

Nashua-Plainfield came into the game 13-15 while Don Bosco was 31-4 and unbeaten against Class 1A foes.

Those who expected a rout, though, were in for a rude surprise.

Yes, the Dons used single runs in the first, third and fourth innings to take a 3-0 lead, but the Huskies responded with a three-run rally in the fifth.

Alex Bienemann led off the frame with a single and Braydon Fisher reached on an infield single and both runners moved up a base on a throwing error.

Mason Hyde singled home Bienemann with the Huskies’ first run, and Devin Koob and Jason Fisher followed up with sacrifice flies that scored Braydon Fisher and courtesy runner Dylan Downing, who had aggressively taken an extra base on Koob’s flyout.

“We were aggressive that inning, and Dylan did what he had to do to get that game tied up,” Miller said. “Whatever anyone says, we left it all out there.”

Nashua-Plainfield threatened in the seventh when it loaded the bases with just one out but couldn’t get the go-ahead run across.

It marked the second time in the game that the Huskies had the bases loaded with just one out yet didn’t score.

“It cost us obviously,” Miller said. “You have to take advantage of the opportunities you get against a Don Bosco, but again, who expected us to be where we were at in this game?”

In the bottom of the frame, the Dons manufactured a run when leadoff hitter Austin Miller drew a leadoff walk. Pinch-runner Caleb Rigdon stole second and scored from there when Hyde had to hurry a throw on a sacrifice bunt and it sailed just over the glove of first baseman Zach Bond.

Hyde, with both his bat and his arm, kept Nashua-Plainfield in the game. He went six-plus strong innings, giving up eight hits, striking out one and walking two.

And he got help from his defense as the Huskies turned two double plays, centerfielder Jared Whitinger made a brilliant diving catch in centerfield and second baseman Alex Bienemann saved a run earlier in the game when he took a bad hop off his chest but still threw a runner out at first.

“I love these guys,” Miller said. “I love their grit, I love the way they play the game.”

He paused once more, for again, the emotions got the best of him.

“Forget about 13-16,” he said of his team’s final record. “These guys are champions in my book.”