3-2 ,could just as easily be 5-0

Lost another heartbreaker 2-1 to Salem. Ferlan had a one hitter going into the 7th, he was DEALING. He ended up with a 2 hitter and the loss. Three walks and a big 2 out basehit for Salem and BG comes up short. The kid Peters pitching for Salem gave up 4 hits and struck out at least 10. GOOD PITCHING DUEL ON A CHILLY NIGHT.
That's 2 games in a row that late inning letdowns due in Guertin.Looks like my Bg pitching prediction is coming true. Ferlan has given up 2 runs in 14 innings. Gotta get the bats going. Kelly was thrown out stealing, {I LOST A BET ON THAT ONE}.The catcher from Salem is going to NORTHEASTERN to play Baseball.
BG has given up 11 total runs in 5 games, and out of those 11 at least 5 are unearned that I can remember.

Ouch that game hurt a lot. BG let the Salem starter off the hook early and paid for it as he got stronger as the game went on and things got tighter. Tough to have bases loaded early and only get 1 run out of it. Whomever made the claim that BG doesn't have two aces care to revisit that statement? No, they're not Turner and Poore, but come playoff time games like this will help.

Agree with you on the definition for the word "Ace" in HS baseball this season, JAF. BG has some good pitching and so does Memorial. There is early evidence that a 7 to 11 seed will be very dangerous in the playoffs this year. Sure, they might have a struggle getting past the top team's #1 pitcher in the prelim games, but if they do and the quarterfinal games are being pitched by the #2 and some times # 3 pitcher in the later innings no upset will surprise me in the quarters this year.

JAF- I made the statement and stand by it. Never said the pitching was bad, just too many people throw around the "ace" label. Only two aces in Division 1 this year are Poore and Turner. That is just reality....

GNG idk if its true or not or if i should even post it here. But i heard that some kids on the BG team where kicked off not going to mention names or what happened. But is this true? Not causing any problems or anything but Thats kind of big so early in the season.

I don't understand all this debate about "aces".... the ace typically refers to the best starter in the rotation.... ie. the #1. Every team has a #1 and therefore every team has an ace - . In some cases the the #1 and #2 pitchers in a rotation of very close in which case you may be able to say there are two aces..... if the debate is over the two top pitchers in Div 1 then fine... debate who are the top two pitchers -- the claim that there are only two aces in Div 1 is nonsense..............

Thanks FullCount you make my point... I don't dispute in D1 that Nick and Ryan are top level pitchers. I've seen both pitch, they're both filthy with the fastball and have some excellent offspeed pitches that make batters knees go weak. However, I also believe some wrongly consider an ace to be only flame throwers that strike out more than 1/2 the lineup on fastballs, while others will consider an ace to be a pitcher who pitches to contact for outs.

When the game is over and all 21 outs are recorded what's the difference between a strikeout and a ground or fly ball out? I think what can happen with your primarily FB pitcher is that that defense can be lulled to sleep watching him strike out batter after batter. When the ball is hit, it's going to come at you in a hurry. Whereas, your pitch to contact pitcher has a defense that knows it'll be more involved. Also consider it's very different to field a ground ball hit by an 80MPH slider than it is a 90MPH fastball, especially with these bats.

If nothing else provoking debate is good clean fun...

No problem with your argument, with the exception that I maintain there is a difference between an ace and a #1- a big difference. Who brought velocity into this conversation?? One of the best high school pitchers I have ever seen was very low 80's and lost only one game in 4 years- Jamie Morin from Goffstown.

nhball9, in baseball, a team's ace is the best starting pitcher on the team and nearly always the first pitcher in the starting rotation. Is one team's ace better than another team's ace? Possibly. However, by definition they are both aces. I also agree that velocity is not a defining criterion. I have seen teams get no-hit by pitchers throwing what appear to be watermelons that batters just can't seem to be able to do anything with. That said, velocity never hurts.

Now you are just getting into a semantics debate. Fine, call any team's pitcher an "ace" if that makes you happy. I was trying to designate the difference between the upper tier level in the league- regardless of team- and the best pitcher on a single team. In my mind an ace is one of those top tier kids on top of being their own team's #1. BG (for the sake of this argument- and they are quite popular on these boards!) does not have one of those ace-level kids league wide. In fact I would say there are only a handful of aces this year- Poore, Turner, Dow from Spaulding (if his coach ever pitched him this year) for sure. Then the guys who have the ability to take it to the next level if they develop (and out of this list I would bet only 3 or 4 take it to that next level by the time they leave high school): Hudon from Merrimack, Moloney and Kinnon from Londonderry, Sullivan from Memorial, Welch from West, Sullivan from Winnacunnett, Freeney from Pinkerton, Gilcrest from BG, Dionne from Concord. I can't think of any more at this point.

What's funny in all this discussion of what an Ace is and isn't is the 75% probability of the D1 Champ in baseball this year will be the team that has the better #2 and #3 pitcher on their staff who pitches better in their "non-Ace" playoff games.

I've never disagreed that Poore and Turner are top pitchers in this state - their scholarships to D1 schools prove their value. If you're talking about the next level - you can find a few commits listed on the Showcase league website http://showcaseleague.com/?p=135. There are a few that didn't play showcase that are also going somewhere - Cote from Winnisquam comes to mind, but I'm sure there are others.

I agree with Sullivan/Memorial & Welch - they each have very good stuff. Gilchrist could pitch at the next level - I think he's going to Widener in Chester, PA, not sure if he's pitching or swimming... I'm not buying on Moloney and Hudon - I've seen them both quite a few times. I haven't seen or don't remember the others you listed

Actually, Moloney and Hudon, are the most likely to take that next step to elite status. Welch has one pitch (though a very effective fastball), Sullivan is raw, Gilcrest is the weakest of the bunch, You mention scholarship level. Well, Hudon has interest from numerous D2/D3 schools in New England (Merrimack, UMass-Lowell, Keene, etc.), Moloney- as a sophomore- is being followed by BC and UConn.
I guess the only thing that can really be taken out of this is that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Have seen Maloney a few times and he looks solid, but not great. Is he a true sophomore, or did he do a red shirt/readiness year of school?

Hudon also looks solid, but not great. Needs some more size if he's going to get beyond DIII in college.

Welch was very ordinary the only time I saw him last year, 3 balks in one game.

Sullivan/Memorial looked very solid when I saw him.

What's up w/ Turner, does he have more than a fastball? I didn't really see anything else in the game I saw him pitch. Does North have any pitching beyond Turner and Mellin? Heard they used Turner in relief on Friday after his 130 pitches on Monday. Who did North pitch in the 14 -9 game w/ Timberlane on Tuesday?

Well said, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".... there are many facets to evaluating a pitcher and what they can do. That's why the scouts are the scouts, and the fans are just the fans.

I do agree with you on Maloney and Hudon not being much more than solid D2/D3 starters. Hudon is on my sons team and nothing against the young man, but he is too short to be a D1 pitcher and have success. If only he would grow, he could have something special. But I feel like that is not the case sadly. Hudon has constantly been labeled as mediocre and I feel that despite being third team all-state his freshman year, he has slowly decreased in potential. He hits in our two spot, but has hit leadoff quite a bit. His fastball hits about 80mph and sits there with good off speed. He has great grades and is a bright kid. It's just upsetting to see someone like him not get the attention he may have gotten is he was half a foot taller.

As for Tim Sullivan I believe the one thing he has going for him is his size, and the fact he has outstanding off-speed for a high school pitcher.

Poore and Turner both are at the top of the division and I don't believe there should be any argument for that.

Welch I have seen pitch now several times. Last year I must say was quite the opposite of what I expected. But I was at this past Friday's game against Merrimack, and he shut us down the entire game. His third baseman made 4 errors costing West the game, but it was unbelievable to hear that he had thrown 120 pitches that Monday against Trinity. Welch gave up not one earned run, struck out 9 batters (our 4 and 5 hitters five of the 9 times) and allowed only 4 hits. To all of you saying he has no breaking pitch, of his 9 strikeouts 6 of them were on curve balls that had our batters buckling all day (including my kid who struck out twice). Another note to this game, after Welch's third baseman made an error and put runners on second and third with no outs, he went on to strike out the next two batters with pure gas and got the third to ground out to short. He has the mind set of a pitcher. I look forward to reading more about this kid throughout the year.

To follow up on the last poster's comments about Tim Sullivan, our (North) boys faced him Friday and although he did not have an overpowering fastball, he did have excellent command of the strike zone and a nasty curve ball. Sullivan carried a 1-hit shutout into the 7th inning before North plated two runs to tie the game. Shannon Martin walked with one out after a terrific at bat. He was 1-2 in the count before working it to full and an eventual walk. Kelvin Rodriguez then hit a hard grounder to 3rd and reached first. Louis Tarantino laid down a sac-bunt to move runners into scoring position. A wild pitch allowed one run to score and Brandon Karkhanis singled in the tying run.

Jake Mellin pitched 7 terrific innings and only allowed 2 hits and one or two walks. Kyle Turner came on for the 8th & 9th frames and was his usual sharp self. In the bottom of the 9th, Mellin reached on a walk and was bunted over to second by Keon Jenkins who reached safely on a high throw. The Memorial 2nd baseman did a terrific job of backing up the errant throw keeping Mellin at 2nd. Tarantino laid down another bunt. I believe the pitcher (Sullivan was out of the game at this point) fielded the ball and correctly threw to 3rd, but the throw was high and Mellin ended up scoring the winning run. Pretty fitting for Jake as he really pitched well Friday night.

Memorial played an excellent game. Good fielding, timely hitting to setup their 1st two runs, and an outstanding performance by Sullivan. It's hard to believe they are 2-4.