RallyNorth.net

GLOUCESTER - With each dazzling inning Yunior Vasquez assuaged the pain of a dreadful Lawrence High start to yesterday's Division 1 North quarterfinal.

He could never quite erase the root of that anguish.

LAWRENCE - Andover attacked, pressured and slugged away at Lawrence High with a purpose in every at-bat. Mike Calzetta was just better.

The Lancer righty buckled up in a nine-inning, 132-pitch marathon powering Lawrence to a bit of revenge over Andover, 2-1, in a Division 1 North first-rounder before about 500 fans last night.

LAWRENCE - Andover attacked, pressured and slugged away at Lawrence High with a purpose in every at-bat. Mike Calzetta was just better.

The Lancer righty buckled up in a nine-inning, 132-pitch marathon powering Lawrence to a bit of revenge over Andover, 2-1, in a Division 1 North first-rounder before about 500 fans last night.

LAWRENCE - Andover High sent a shudder through Division 1 North the last two days and in the process picked up its 15th title at the 28th Lawrence Invitational Baseball Tournament.

For the second straight night, the Warriors banked on and received a dominating mound effort, this one a Shawn Carlson three-hitter, to knock off Lawrence High, 5-1, and claim the championship before about 250 fans encircling Mark Devlin Field.

LAWRENCE - Fans of high school pitching feasted last night in the Lawrence Invitational Tournament semifinals. And a scrumptious main course, featuring a pair of 90 mph fastballers, looms in tonight's title game.

LAWRENCE - Lawrence High hit one ball hard all night and survived. Perplexed all night long by lefty Mike Eyssi, the Lancers, down 3-0 through 41/2 innings to upset-minded Methuen, somehow scraped a rally together and prevaile in a walk-off 4-3 Lawrence Invitational opening win. That one blast, a Dionys Quezada shot to the left-centerfield gap, scored Harvey Blanco, who barely dove in under Alex Shepherd's sweep tag for the game-winner with one out in the seventh. Tonight, Lawrence will tackle Tewksbury in the second of two semifinals at Devlin Field, here at 7 p.m. At 4 p.m., it will be Andover and North Andover fighting for the right to play for a title. Eyssi, the Methuen junior, simply deserved a better fate. "We haven't seen a pitcher like that all year," said Lancer Tito Lluberes. "He had great offspeed stuff and gave us a lot of trouble with that curve ball." Indeed, Eyssi, who walked four and struck out four had Lawrence buckling and guessing. Through four, he had surrendered a pair of harmless infield singles. Meanwhile, the Rangers pounced for single runs in the second and third, the latter plated on Cal Carroll's sac fly, and another in the fifth. For a while, it looked like that would be plenty for Eyssi, but 15-3 Lawrence showed its class, or at least its sheer will by scratching and clawing. Blanco and Jose Sandoval had RBIs in the fifth, and Devin Montanez' infield out scored pinch-runner Elvis Guilamo to knot it at 3-3 in the sixth. Lluberes was a life-saver for Lawrence on the hill, picking up the win with five innings of two-hit, four-strikeout relief. "I had no idea I'd pitch until (coach Brendan Neilon) made the change," said Lluberes, who had thrown a total of four innings all year before last night. "I've been practicing the whole year, waiting for the call. "Of course I was ready. When your team needs help, you have to be there. I knew all I had to do was keep it close. When we start to panic, this team had guys like Harvey and Dionys ready to pick us up." Blanco, who plays fullback in the fall needed every ounce of his speed to beat a picture-perfect Ranger relay. Shortstop Cal Carroll looked to have no shot, then unleashed a 200-foot strike to the play to nearly gun down the runner at home.

LAWRENCE - Lawrence High hit one ball hard all night and survived. Perplexed all night long by lefty Mike Eyssi, the Lancers, down 3-0 through 41/2 innings to upset-minded Methuen, somehow scraped a rally together and prevaile in a walk-off 4-3 Lawrence Invitational opening win. That one blast, a Dionys Quezada shot to the left-centerfield gap, scored Harvey Blanco, who barely dove in under Alex Shepherd's sweep tag for the game-winner with one out in the seventh. Tonight, Lawrence will tackle Tewksbury in the second of two semifinals at Devlin Field, here at 7 p.m. At 4 p.m., it will be Andover and North Andover fighting for the right to play for a title. Eyssi, the Methuen junior, simply deserved a better fate. "We haven't seen a pitcher like that all year," said Lancer Tito Lluberes. "He had great offspeed stuff and gave us a lot of trouble with that curve ball." Indeed, Eyssi, who walked four and struck out four had Lawrence buckling and guessing. Through four, he had surrendered a pair of harmless infield singles. Meanwhile, the Rangers pounced for single runs in the second and third, the latter plated on Cal Carroll's sac fly, and another in the fifth. For a while, it looked like that would be plenty for Eyssi, but 15-3 Lawrence showed its class, or at least its sheer will by scratching and clawing. Blanco and Jose Sandoval had RBIs in the fifth, and Devin Montanez' infield out scored pinch-runner Elvis Guilamo to knot it at 3-3 in the sixth. Lluberes was a life-saver for Lawrence on the hill, picking up the win with five innings of two-hit, four-strikeout relief. "I had no idea I'd pitch until (coach Brendan Neilon) made the change," said Lluberes, who had thrown a total of four innings all year before last night. "I've been practicing the whole year, waiting for the call. "Of course I was ready. When your team needs help, you have to be there. I knew all I had to do was keep it close. When we start to panic, this team had guys like Harvey and Dionys ready to pick us up." Blanco, who plays fullback in the fall needed every ounce of his speed to beat a picture-perfect Ranger relay. Shortstop Cal Carroll looked to have no shot, then unleashed a 200-foot strike to the play to nearly gun down the runner at home.

Juan Ventura's two-out, two-run single in the top of the seventh scored two runs to propel Lawrence to a thrilling 9-8 win over Dracut — claiming the Merrimack Valley small division championship for the Lancers.

LAWRENCE - Brendan Walsh was drowning and about 400 fans had a front row seat.

The Central Catholic senior pitcher never stopped fighting, though. When his teammates through him a rope - with five runs in the fifth - the gritty right-hander did the rest, slamming the door on rival Lawrence and keeping alive Central's drive to defend its MVC large championship.

HAVERHILL - It's a three-game stretch than can position Lawrence High on the Eastern Mass. baseball map.Step 1, a convincing 7-3 win here over Haverhill yesterday, was by all means a smash.The Lancers, now securely atop the Merrimack Valley Conference small school standings at 11-2 overall and 7-2 in the league, have the opportunity to send a message, both Monday with Tewksbury and then Wednesday night, under the lights at home against large school-leading Central Catholic.Coach Brendan Neilon put the ball in Yunior Vasquez able hands and the sophomore delivered a gem, spacing six hits and four free passes over the distance. He fanned 11, the fourth time he's piled up double-figure strikeout numbers."I was a little surprised I got the ball in such a big game," said Vasquez, now 5-0 on the year. "It's good to go out and prove you can do it against top hitters like (Haverhill catcher Ronnie Rosario). This was big because we have a chance now to basically put them away in the conference race."Haverhill now stands at 5-5 in the league, with the possibility of an 8-5 finish. Dracut is 5-4, still two back of the Lancers.Lawrence got a pair of runs in the first, pouncing on an infield error. Jovany Fernandez' third-inning sac fly made it 3-0, before the Hillies chipped away for a pair in their half.Harvey Blanco smacked and RBI single in the Lawrence fourth, and Danny Cruz busted it open with a two-run triple to deep left-center.From there, it was all Vasquez, who helped his own cause by starting a 1-2-3 double play to end the fourth."I got a lot of help from my teammates, and I just had to do my thing," said Vasquez.Lawrence pounded 12 hits as Jose Sandoval, Blanco, Cruz, Mike Calzetta and Dionys Quezada all had two apiece.The Hillies, who need one win in the last five to assure a spot in the state tourney got some more good news in the recovery of pitcher Taylor Robinson. The big righty pitched three strong innings of relief, striking out four without allowing an earned run.Knuckling underOnly a sophomore, Lawrence's Yunior Vasquez and his high-80s fastball were the talk of the preseason.The key to his success, other than the heat, has been his second pitch, a knuckle curve.How did he learn to throw such a rare pitch?"I taught it to myself," said Vasquez, now 5-0. "I watched (former Oriole and Yankee great) Mike Mussina and worked at throwing it the way he did."