MANCHESTER, N.H. — Salem baseball and survival.
It’s been a recurring theme this summer – first with the Senior Legion team, then with the 12-year-old Little League All-Stars and most recently with the Post 63 Junior Legion team.
Facing elimination in the New Hampshire State Championship tourney on Sunday at Gill Stadium, the Post 63 juniors knocked off Nashua Coffey Post, 8-4, moving into the final four.
Salem plays at 4 p.m., hoping to win and play at 6:30 on Monday night.
Jonathan Marcotte pitched the complete-game win, spacing 10 hits and a walk while striking out seven.
Carter Lemire and Kevin Hardy had two hits apiece in the win.
Post 63 opened the tournament with a 3-2, eight-inning win over Bedford on Friday.
Kyle Giarrusso delivered the walk-off win with a bases-loaded single in the eighth, while Will Gabriel doubled and drove in a run.
Danny Snyder pitched 6.2 innings in the nail-biter, allowing only one earned run and striking out six. Jack Quinby tossed 1.1 innings of relief for the win, striking out a pair.
Quinby, who threw 10 pitches on Friday (nine strikes), came back on Saturday to throw an absolute gem, but it wasn’t enough as Salem fell to North Country of Berlin, 1-0, in nine innings.
Quinby went eight-plus innings, striking out five and walking one, throwing 101 pitches, but took the loss on an unearned run in the ninth.
Zack Dutton had two hits in the loss.