It took twice as long as expected but the Green Wave baseball team is heading back to the Div. 4 state finals.
Abington (#12) upset Northbridge (#9) 5-1 in a marathon 14-inning, 4-hour game Tuesday night that was knotted 0-0 for the first 13 innings. (The standard varsity baseball game lasts 7 innings.)
“I don’t ever recall playing a game that long at the high school level,” said Green Wave Head Coach Steve Perakslis.
Junior Steve Madden started for the Green Wave and gave up zero hits and zero runs over seven innings. Fellow junior Henry Rogers then pitched the next seven innings, giving up just four hits. His only run came in the bottom of the 14th after Abington had already plated five runs in the top of the frame. Freshman Ryan Solimini came in to record the final out, a strikeout, that unleashed a built-up celebration among the exhausted Green Wave players and fans.
“[Madden] commanded the strike zone and he pitched ahead in the count,” Perakslis said.
Perakslis was unable to use Jon Sellon, who went the distance Sunday against Amesbury. Sellon will start for Abington on Saturday when they play Seekonk for the Div. 4 state title at Polar Park in Worcester at 3 p.m. Rogers will also be available to pitch that day, as well as Solimini.
It’s the second time in three years Abington will play for the state title.
“It’s all the kids. They’ve been working real hard,” said Perakslis. “We have a tremendous facility to work at and that’s because of the tremendous support from the town.”
The Green Wave’s best chance for runs came in the top of the 1st, when they managed runners on the corners. However, Sellon was thrown out at home on a double steal to end the inning .
Both sides then dug in deep and the game turned into protracted stalemate with neither side able to manage a significant threat.
In a replay of his last start, Madden experienced some early wildness, but settled down after a mound visit from Perakslis. At one point he struck out six of nine batters. He finished with eight strikeouts, 4 walks, and a hit batter.
“I told Steve ‘Let’s get out of this with one run.’ Fortunately, he did better because the way the game went, if he had given up that run, we wouldn’t have won,” Perakslis said.
Northbridge finally recorded their first hit in the 8th inning off Rogers, who typically serves as a short-inning relief role. However, Rogers was nearly as dominant as Madden, using some great defense to wriggle out of a couple jams.
Sellon, playing center field, was able to double off a Northbridge runner for an inning ending double play in the 8th.
Third baseman Cullen Crocker in the 10th made up for an earlier error by sharing a line drive to end the inning and strand two baserunners.
Right fielder Pat Cummings made a sliding catch in foul territory on the bullpen mound to secure a 1-2-3 11th inning.
And Solimini made a diving catch in left field to keep a Northbridge runner off the basepaths in the 13th.
Perakslis said the dynamite defense kept Abington alive in the game.
“After the 7th, if [Northbridge] scores a run, the game is over, and we don’t get a chance to even it up,” he said.
Back home, hundreds of Green Wave fans were able to nervously follow every pitch thanks to Abington CAM’s broadcast. Matt Nelson called all 14 innings assisted by Bryan Woodford, the Green Wave varsity hockey coach.
A reporter for Abington News watched the first few innings of the game on his smartphone while on the train commuting back home from Boston.
Matt and Jessica Heefner, whose son Dylan is on the Green Wave varsity team, monitored the proceedings in Lowell from the Plymouth Street baseball field while watching their younger son, Myles, play in the Abington Little League title game.
A commenter on YouTube said they were watching their grandson play from. Ireland. Nelson reported that Shawn Reilly, the voice of the Green Wave football team, was watching from Logan Airport.
The Green Wave offense finally broke through in the top of the 14th – as the players from #2 English and #3 Seekonk looked on, waiting for their turn to play.
With the bases loaded, junior Cullen Crocker recorded the game’s first RBI with a sacrifice fly that scored punch runner Cam Cooper. Jacob Centrella drove in two more with a double to center. Solimini crushed a pitch to the left field wall scoring Centella. And Sellon capped off the outburst by knocking in Solimini.
Forty miles to the south, Abington Little Leaguers crowded around a smartphone at Dairy Queen to watch the victorious conclusion of the game that started four hours earlier.
“It took a little longer than we hoped, but you’ve got to do what you got to do if you want to win,” said Perakslis.
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