NASHUA, N.H. – At times throughout his seven scoreless innings of four-hit ball, Salem’s Aaron Masson fell behind hitters, missing mostly with his fastball.
Whenever that happened, he didn’t hit the panic button. Instead, he just called on his good pal, “Uncle Charlie” — also known as his trusty curveball
With his team leading by two runs in the bottom of the seventh on Friday, Masson ran into some trouble as Laconia had runners at second and third with one out.
Hovering at the 100-pitch mark in tough heat, Masson struck out the next two batters, both on curveballs, which allowed the District B No. 4 seed Salem Post 63 to come away with a 2-0 upset victory over District A No. 1 seed Laconia, in the first round of the New Hampshire Legion double elimination tournament played at Holman Stadium.
“I struggled with location at times, but there was good defense behind me and they all played well today,” said Masson, who will be entering his senior year at Salem High this fall “I went through my routine like it was any other day and didn’t change anything and just stuck to what I normally do.”
Laconia (12-6) was able to get the go-ahead runner to the plate after Masson hit the lead-off hitter Will Wallace, which was followed by a sharp single to left by Jaxson Embree. Addie Kernan followed with a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up a base. Laconia then went to the bench to get pinch-hitter Caleb Giovanditto. Early in the count, he smashed a fastball foul down the left field line, only to come back and strike out on two straight deuces.
“He hit that foul ball and I didn’t know what to expect from him because I didn’t see him all day and didn’t know much about this team (heading into the game),” said Masson. I knew that he was seeing my fastball well so I wanted to change his eye level so I threw (the curve) and moved it around.”
Masson then fell behind leadoff hitter Cam Cook before coming back to get him with the curve.
“I’ve had that pitch throughout the season. It’s actually one of my favorite pitches to throw especially when I’m down in the count. Being able to get that for a strike and being able to control that when batters are not necessarily looking for that (pitch) is a big part of my game,” said Masson.
On the day, Masson gave up four singles, walked two, hit a batter and struck out ten. He was helped out by a big double play by shortstop Sean Roeger, of Salem, coming in the sixth inning.
“Aaron was fantastic,” said Salem coach John Ryan. “Unfortunately we burned him out for the rest of the tournament because he threw 105 pitches today.”
Salem (7-10) couldn’t get much going offensively through the first six innings, managing just two hits as Laconia pitcher Mike Hogan retired the 13 straight batters from the second through the sixth innings.
That streak ended when Central Catholic graduate and Eagle-Tribune All-Star Brady Rickenbach took a first-pitch fastball and dumped it into right-center for a lead-off single to start the top of the seventh. Hogan then had Rickenbach picked off first base but a bad throw allowed him to slide in safely at second. Another soon-to-be Salem High senior, Dominick Toscano, then followed with his own heroics.
“(Coach Ryan) gave me the bunt sign and in my head I had to put it down and obviously I didn’t,” said Toscano.
Instead he turned on a fastball and hit it to center, allowing Rickenbach to barely beat the throw to home with the game-winning run.
“It ended up working out fine for the team,” said Toscano with a laugh. “(After I missed the bunt) I was just thinking of hitting the ball up the middle, to the right side and I did that and (Rickenbach) scored the run. In my first at-bat I struggled seeing the curves, so that at-bat, I just sat on a fastball and hit it up the middle.”
Toscano then came around on a throwing error to make it 2-0.
“It was a tough game all-around. It was scoreless into the seventh inning and we just made less mistakes than they did and that was the difference,” said Ryan.
Salem will now play the winner of Keene/Nashua Saturday at 4 p.m., back at Holman Stadium.
Twitter: @JamiePote
Salem 2, Laconia 0Salem: 000 000 2 -2 4 1
Laconia: 000 000 0 -0 4 1
Salem: Paul Armstrong cf 3-0-0, Sean Roeger ss 3-0-0, Aaron Masson p 3-0-1, Brady Rickenbach c 3-1-1, Dominick Toscano 3-1-1, Josh Martino 3b 2-0-0, Joseph Coviello 2b 3-0-1, Jason Ciarcia rf 2-0-0, Cooper Deschene lf 3-0-0. Totals: 25-2-4.
Laconia: Cam Cook lf 4-0-0, Karter Deming ss 3-0-0, Sam Seavey 1b 2-0-1, Cam Manning dh 3-0-0, Owen Waldron 2b 3-0-1, Will Wallace 3b 1-0-0, Jaxson Embree c 3-0-2, Addie Kernen rf 1-0-0, Ben Beaudoin cf 2-0-0, Caleb Giovanditto ph 1-0-0, Mike Hogan p 0-0-0, Chase Carder p 0-0-0. Totals: 23-0-4.
RBI: Salem, Toscano; WP: Masson (7 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 2 BB, 10K); LP: Hogan (6 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 4H, 0 BB, 4 K).