Spencer Merrick has already graduated but he’s not quite ready to take off the Abington uniform.
The Green Wave Captain came to the plate in the bottom of the 6th inning with his team down a run and teammate AJ Nash on second.
“I was thinking, ‘I’m not done with these boys yet,'” said Merrick, the team’s three year starting catcher and this year’s South Shore League MVP.
Merrick helped extend Abington’s season by smashing a long double off Amesbury’s tough starter Trevor Kimball to knock in Nash and tie up the game. Merrick’s pinch runner would come around to score and give Abington a 3-2 win Sunday over a pesky Red Hawks squad in the MIAA Div. 4 state tournament at Tom Graham Diamond at Memorial Field.
Abington will next play Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Div. 4 Final Four at LeLacheur Park in Lowell (the home of the Lowell Spinners) against Northbridge. It’s the third year in a row the Green Wave has made the state semifinals.
The game started as an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel with Kimball (6 innings, 3 runs, 5 hits, 10Ks) and Abington starter Jon Sellon (7 innings, 2 runs, 7 hits, 10 Ks) both pitching shutouts after three innings.
“We knew it was going to be a close game, they’re a quality team,” said Green Wave Coach Steve Perakslis. “Last year when we played them we went up there and sorta got the jump on them. But they’re solid.”
Amesbury got on the board first when Kimball smoked a Sellon pitch onto the Abington JV field and then beat the relay throw home for a 1-0 lead in the 4th inning. Abington responded in the bottom of the 4th when AJ Nash reached first on a throwing error by the Amesbury second baseman. He advanced to third on a single by Pat Cummings (2-3, 2 stolen bases) and scored on Henry Rogers’ sacrifice fly.
Although Sellon was accurate to the plate all day — he walked only one batter — his wildest throw of the day helped Amesbury regain the lead in the fifth. After Drew Scialdone beat out an infield single, Will Arsenault lined a shot back up the middle that struck Sellon in the leg. Sellon recovered but his throw to first sailed over Nash’s head allowing Scialdone to score and Arsenault to advance to third.
Perakslis said he checked on Sellon but his junior lefthander told him he wasn’t coming out.
Sellon then struck out Kimball looking to end the inning and retired seven of the next nine batters to close out the game.
Merrick said Sellon was “fantastic” Sunday.
“Just absolute dominance like usual,” he said. “He also wouldn’t have the same success without our fantastic defense. They make all the plays.”
Heading into the bottom of the 6th, Perakslis called the team together for a quick chat. Kimball had struck out the side in the 5th and even the Green Wave’s normally loud bench was getting quiet.
“We knew we had the right people coming up, we just had to get a man on base,” Perakslis recalled telling the team. “We got him on, and then Spencer did the rest.”
Nash reached on a throwing error by the Red Hawks shortstop and was awarded second. He made it to third on a wild pitch by Kimball, and scored easily on Merrick’s double. Mason Nash ran for Merrick, advanced to third on a fielders choice by Cummings, and scored the go-ahead run when Rogers grounded out.
“That’s what good teams do, you’ve got to take advantage when you’ve got a shot,” Perakslis said about the Red Hawks’ errors.
The Red Hawks in the 7th managed to get runners on first and second with two out before Arsenault flew out right to end the game.
“We just got to keep hitting,” Perakslis said about his team’s chances of repeating its 2021 trip to the state title game. “Our defense has been fine, our pitching has been spectacular. We just got to keep hitting the ball, and as you keep getting closer to the prize, you see better pitching, and we just got to keep building off that.”