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Bergeron powers Devils

SALEM — On the off chance that fantasy baseball for high school is a thing in New Hampshire, Friday would have been the perfect day to have had Matt Bergeron in the lineup.

It sure turned out beneficial for Salem.

The Blue Devil senior did the job at the plate, blasting a monster three-run homer, but was even more dominant on the mound, shutting down visiting Timberlane on two hits while striking out eight in an 8-0 victory that put Salem back over the .500 mark.

"I'd tell people about the pitching first," said Bergeron when asked his day's highlight. "I'm more of a pitcher than a hitter, but I'd follow up on the hitting — it was like stomach high; a fastball. It looked like a balloon, and I put it out."

While the first homer of his career was massive, it provided the final runs of the afternoon and essentially was unnecessary simply because Begeron only required the first-inning run scored by lead-off hitter Matt Soldano.

Winning his third consecutive start, Bergeron surrendered infield singles in the second and fourth, stranding both at first. The right hander's control numbers were remarkable as 67 of his 79 pitches were in the strike zone. He threw two balls or more in only three innings and threw nothing but strikes in two others. Only one Owl hit the ball out of the infield — a fly to left in the sixth by Christian Allaire that Trevor Deminico ran down.

"I've always been known more for my control than my speed," said Bergeron, who shutout Bishop Guertin his previous start. "And my control was on today. I went with either a fastball up or a slider in the dirt (for the out pitch).

"After the first inning that went one-two-three, I knew that I was throwing strikes. I only threw five pitches in the first inning, and I knew my pitch count was going to be low."

Soldano put himself in position to score two of Salem's first three runs. A lead-off triple in the first and a single and two stolen bases in the third set up RBI ground outs for No. 2 hitter Jake Emerson. Corey Cochran scored a second-inning run on a passed ball before adding a sacrifice fly in the third. Soldano's third hit drove in Deminico in the fourth for a 5-0 lead.

The win capped off a hectic eight days that had Salem (7-6) playing five times. The Devils broke even the first four games against teams among the top five in the Division 1 standings.

"We have six games to go, and we feel confident with all six," Bergeron said. "We feel we're one of the best teams in the state. We competed against (undefeated) Bedford (Thursday) and it was a tough loss, but we have things to improve on."

Timberlane coach Jamie Fish wouldn't be surprised if the Devils close strong.

"In a nutshell, they just basically kicked the snot out of us," he said. "That's the best hitting team I've seen so far (this season)."