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Rangers denied monster upset in walkoff Lawrence win

Friday, May, 22 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

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.

Tonight's matchups

The semifinals today shape up to be a pair of pretty good matchups.
At 4 p.m., it will most likely be Andover flame-thrower Shawn Carlson, pitching for his club's state tourney life against rival North Andover. The Knights have a handful of mound options but righty Aaron Brunette appears as a strong choice.
Then at 7 p.m., Lawrence sends MVC small MVP Mike Calzetta out to the mound to tackle Tewksbury, which has capable sophomore Matt Lupi ready to roll.

Additional stories:

• Rangers denied monster upset in walkoff Lawrence win