RallyNorth.net

Tenth-inning tumble hurts Central's title defense

Tuesday, May, 12 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

NORTH ANDOVER - Central Catholic's baseball mission became a lot clearer right about at dinner time yesterday.
The Raiders, upended in 10 innings by Chelmsford, 4-1, now know losing is not an option if they desire to defend their Merrimack Valley Conference title.
"We saw their ace, and we're going to see everybody's ace this week," said coach Marc Pelletier, whose Raiders are no 7-3 in the league, a game behind Lowell with three to play. "We have to win. You try to win every game, but in this league one is not any more important than the others."
Talk about a monster task, though. The Raiders have to go through 12-2 Lawrence tomorrow night, arch-rival Andover Thursday and the 8-6 Red Raiders of Lowell Friday night at Alumni.
Yesterday's squander of a Matt Novak side-arming masterpiece was huge.
Central stranded 10 on the bases and ran into the third out to end the third with two on.With Novak watching, the Lions dropped in three more hits to grab the decisive 4-1 lead.
"We just didn't clutch up at the plate," said Pelletier. "I think 1-through-9, everybody had a chance today, but we just didn't get it done."
Novak, now 2-1, pitching into the 10th, surrendering a one-out single that ended his 130-pitch day.
"That's as fine a pitching performance as you're going to get," said Pelletier of his Northeastern-bound submariner, who allowed four hits and three walks, while striking out six. "And the kid on the on other side (Chelmsford's Mike Martell) matched him pitch for pitch."
Martell had the Raiders off balance all day, toughest of all with runners on. He also pitched into the 10th.
Pat Noone had two hits and knocked in the Central run with a single in the third.
Recuperating Andrew Guyer, seeing his third game action, added a pair of hits, while sizzling slugger Tim Wheeler (.533) extended his season-long hit streak to 13 games.