RallyNorth.net

Lawrence tumbles in 10th

Monday, June, 01 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

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.

Six walks allowed,five runners gunned down on the bases, and a pair of errors in the first four innings all came back to spoil an amazing 130-pitch gem by the sophomore Vasquez. The fifth-seeded Lancers, who gamely scratched a run across to tie in the eighth, tumbled in the 10th of a thriller to No. 4 Gloucester, 3-2.

"You make the mental mistakes on the bases, you don't deserve to win," said coach Brendan Neilon, whose team won 17 games for the first time in more than two decades. "All year long, we've been telling these guys that mental mistakes are going to bite us. They bit us today. We had a guy thrown out at third, had a guy thrown out at the plate, and when we needed to hit big, we didn't hit big."

Only some explosive mound work by Vasquez kept the Lancers alive.

Escaping a four-walk, one-error fourth with only one Fishermen run, the 6-foot-1 right-hander settled in and slammed the door. As he mowed Gloucester down on one hit over the next five frames, Vasquez gave the slumbering Lancer bats a shot.

"He gave us everything he had and deserved a better fate, he deserved to win," said Neilon, whose starter went nine strong, allowing three hits and the six free passes with 10 strikeouts.

Neilon faced that decision that every high school coach dreads with Vasquez at 130 pitches through nine.

"He wanted to pitch the 10th," said the coach. "But he's only a sophomore. Leaving him out there wouldn't be fair to him or the program. We have to think about his future, too."

Reliever Victor Mendez came on after Gloucester starter and winner Dylan Maki got the Lancers in the 10th.

Mendez fanned the lead man but Ryan Cusick doubled and stole third. Mendez got Maki with a nasty breaking ball for strike three, but luck finally turned on the Lancers as the ball ricocheted off the plate to the backstop to plate Cusick with the game-winner.

"We were lucky to be in the game the way it was," said Neilon. "We had a chance to steal it. We just didn't steal it."

Offensively, Lawrence had eight hits. Tito Lluberes, who tied the game with a clutch two-out RBI single in the eighth, had a pair, as did Dionys Quezada. Junior Mike Calzetta added an RBI base hit to get the Lancers on the board in the first.

The bright side is that Lawrence, which returns all but two senior starters, has the potential to learn from this.
With Calzetta and Vasquez - a combined 12-2 on the mound this year - plus seven hitters with averages of .300 or better returning, Lawrence clearly stands as a power in Division 1 North next spring.

"Mentally we have to be stronger. We have to learn to fight and be stronger," said Neilon. "This year no one expected much from us, and we could sneak up on people. Next year there's going to be a target on our backs."