Early in the season, settle down

While this has turned into the "BG baseball lovefest" it should be noted that it is VERY early in the season. I was at the last BG game and to say the account of the game was "enthusiastically overstated" is an understatement. They played better than the previous 4 years of BG baseball, but they didn't play to the level described. So far I have seen Salem, Pinkerton, Alvirne, Londonderry, South, Memorial, BG, and Dover play (preseason and regular season). I would say Salem is the best of the bunch, though they must rely on their defense and pitching as their offense is average at best. Pinkerton is going to surprise people, but they are a .500 team at best. Alvirne is on a down year, as is South. Memorial is not the powerhouse people have said they are, outside of Sullivan they have zero pitching. BG is good, but they don't stand out in any area (and no- they don't have three- or two- aces, unless you lower your definition of an "ace'"). Londonderry is the best hitting team I have seen thus far, but what else do they have? Dover is a legit sleeper team, they seem to do everything decently.
This isn't meant to offend, just offer a non-biased view of the current season.

The baseball board is thin now, and there are several BG basketball holdovers. We welcome your opinion NHball9 and I for one am refreshed to have opinions coming in from others. I was contemplating renaming this slice of the Internet the BG/Milford Sports Forum! Kidding of course but again, nice to have other observations and opinions.

nhball9 - We welcome other opinions on HS baseball. We are looking for information and opinions on other HS baseball programs. We are just looking to receive postings with good discussion. Yes, it turned into a "BG baseball lovefest" because the BG fans were just about the only HS baseball fans posting on the Forum the last 2 weeks. If they post and keep on posting and no other fans from other teams post information or opinions then so be it.

So, nhball9 keep on posting and tell your friends, family and fans from other teams to start posting their opinions on HS baseball and to post results and stats from games the afternoons and nights games are played. I'd love to see information fresh off the baseball fields instead of reading microscopic capsules in the local papers the next day.

I won't tell the BG people to "settle down" because I appreciate their passion and knowledge about HS baseball. If other programs want to interject their knowledge and passion about the sport..................... Go for it !!

SPREAD THE WORD !!!

I prefer to use the term optimism over "lovefest". It's nice to be excited about baseball at BG again... Wish there were more baseball people in the state that visited and posted on this Board, but when you've got 2 BG and 1 Trinity supporter posting the majority of info, then what do you expect...

Anyway, if your definition of an Ace is Turner or Poore - then sure there's only two of those in this Division. BG's top two pitchers aren't your classical ace definition, but they do match up quite well against any other team's ace and I believe either is better than the #2 from other teams. Both have had 3 years of Varsity experience which other than Turner or Poore, how many other aces have that same experience. You still have to go out and play the game on the field where anything can happen - pitching and defense is key to being successful. So far BG's defense has held up - sure like anyone they make errors, but they also overcome them. If you discount the 7 unearned runs against West in the 6th inning - it's 2-0, 2-1, and 5-4 - you don't win all 3 of those games without good pitching and defense. Even Poore and Turner have balls hit against them and if their defense isn't good, then that puts that much more pressure on them to be perfect.

That said - I agree it's early, who would expect Winnicunnet to be 2-0 beating Keene 10-0. I think other than Salem & North there's going to be a lot of parity in the division. Londonderry can certainly hit, but blowing a 7-0 lead to Alvirne and escaping 14-13 says to me perhaps their pitching isn't deep. Their "ace" lost to Memorial's "ace"... As for Dover - if you consider their Jr. Legion team has been very successful over the last few years, then it only makes sense those kids would be playing Varsity by now and they'll be a contender this year. Hopefully the weather turns around soon and we stop having games played in the low 40's with wind chills that make it feel like 20!

I hear you on the weather JAF. I'm getting tired of the low "feels like" temp just about every day in April so far. If it isn't windy, it's raining. If it isn't raining the temps are 10 to 15 degrees below normal. It's time to get on with spring and 60 to 70 degree days. I welcome the chance to see some games at historic Holman Stadium and historic Gill Stadium. I want to eat 5 Guys hot dogs, popcorn, soft pretzels, peanuts and Cracker Jack while watching HS baseball because....

............. "I don't care if I never get back."

No need to settle down - it is perfectly O.K. for you to be positive about your team(s) also - Go BG !!

Its good to have a little talk other then BG! Nothing against you GNG i know your super hyped about how the season is going i would be too. I think BG can be a top four team in the state. I feel like its a down year in Divison 1 compared to others. Londonderry graduated a lot of talent, Keene is 0-3 or 1-2 they are usually a top of the standing every year. South also with a down year. I think its anyones for the taking. I know salem and north have a boat load of talent. Dover is deff a sleeper i agree with you on that one. But i think winn is better. New coach and they are always tought to play. They are looking very good on the year.

For my Alma Mater Alvirne......I know all the kids, i know the coaches very well im suprised this early in the season to be honest. I know they have no pitching but i didnt think they would be 0-3. Thats the main problem and their fielding hasnt been great. Is this going to be like the basketball season start 0-6 and make it to the semis!!!??? Lets hope because they have a lot of Sr leadership and have the chance to make a run. Coach Lee has his teams always prepared. He has been coach their for almost 30 years. He knows what he is talking about.

One needs to remember that with a change in coaching staff BG went from contender to doormat (please, no flames as no offense is meant), and many kids suffered as a result. Now with the early success under Painter and Sheedy, there is hope again. True, the damage done will require years to correct - Johnson should never have allowed the program to deteriorate as far as it did, but when he finally acted he put a great team in place. The general feeling is that if anyone can turn the program around, this coaching team can do it. Their challenge will be to regularly play the Juniors on the team, while trying to correct the injustice done to the current Seniors, so that BG does not start each season with a mostly inexperienced team like this year, where most of the varsity players have little or no prior varsity experience. The future looks bright for BG, and the optimism is hard to contain.

nhball9 keep those non biased opinions coming. I called one of the guys who run this site and told him I was done because there is no interest. In football and hoops this site has a flurry of activity. For baseball it's like I am talking to myself. Blogging about the other teams in baseball is hard cuz their is no roster at games. Although I thought I gave great props to both the West and Trinity pitchers. It is hard to settle down because BG baseball has been a joke the last few years. It usually takes 12 games into the season for BG to pick up win number 3.
I stand by my comment that they have the deepest staff in division 1. Here is something I bet you didn't know nhball9, four backups started the game you went to. Two second string at their position, and two third string at their position.
FAMILY TREE- As many of you know I think the BG junior catcher is special, The kid will be playing college baseball. What you might not know is he has a little brother who is a sophmore who is banging the ball around at the jv level like he is playing slow pitch softball. Here is the cool part, they have a little brother in the 8th grade who just might be the best of the bunch.McQuarrie is the name, get used to it, because you will be reading it in the paper{if they ever come to a game} for years to come.
Game of the year today North at Salem. I can't make it, have to work. Hope someone goes and posts about it.

GNG wrote:I called one of the guys who run this site and told him I was done because there is no interest. In football and hoops this site has a flurry of activity. For baseball it's like I am talking to myself. Blogging about the other teams in baseball is hard cuz their is no roster at games.

I heard a voice, it said, "If you build it, they will come"...oh wait, no that was just T&F...

"it's like I am talking to myself" GNG

I have been with GNG in a group of many people, a group of few people and when it's just me and GNG. Most of the time:

"it's like HE IS talking to himself."


On a serious note.... It is difficult for information collection at a HS baseball game. At a HS basketball game the first thing you do after paying admission is picking up a roster of the 2 teams at the entrance. You can learn a great deal from a roster, both JV and Varsity. You get a real good feel for the teams because you're up close and personal.

At a HS baseball game the first thing you do is walk to the diamond and then turn around to get a sweat shirt at your car because the "feels like" at the park is 10 to 30 degrees colder than the "feels like" at your house. After a few Ks or couple of nice defensive plays and hits you then try to talk to a couple of people to find out who that 5'8 to 6'2 kid is, WHO ALL LOOK THE SAME IN A BASEBALL UNIFORM. If you're lucky you run into some one like GNG who is boisterously mostly talking to himself and you look to receive auditory drippings from his verbal blasts.

Then....... by the 4th to 5th inning you see mothers walking around with children asking, "Is there a bathroom around here?"

So, yes, going to a HS baseball game can be a challenge compared to going to a HS basketball game.

Caught the last few innings Souhegan won 3-0. Not sure who the kid was on the mound but he was filthy had a no-hitter into the 6th until Logan Danforth (Milford) broke it up. The young man pitching for Souhegan had a nasty curve, and also had a great slider. He kept Milford off balance, and got them to chase quite a bit. I heard Brett Stagnone (Milford) threw 4 or 5 solid innings gave up an unearned run. Nick Webster also pitched pretty well for Milford. This game like was just like the game vs H/B for Milford, limited production with the bats, and too many errors.

Milford's pitching isn't bad with Stagnone, Danforth and crew and showed today that there pitching can keep them in the game with a team that's far better, but if they don't limit the errors and find a way to get some baserunners/produce runs when they do have baserunners they're going to be in for another looooong season.

Souhegan's pitcher was Terry Dugdale - I think he's either soph or junior, not sure.

Correct, Souhegan Pitcher was Terry Dugdale. I was at the game as well. He actually took the no-hitter into the seventh inning with one out. Danforth's base hit was the only ball that reached the outfield for Milford all day. He ended up striking out 15 and going the distance. He is a junior and was first team all state as a sophomore last year.

Poor attendance at baseball games is not something unique to NH HS ball. Check the box scores at even the best Schools in New England for college baseball. The numbers are downright embarassing. Now ccertainly some of that can be attributed to the time of day for weekday games, but not on the weekend. Also students do not tend to go to baseball games much at all.

Basketball and football get the crowds, not baseball. (And I'm a big baseball fan!)

Happy to see BG doing well, but as someone else noted there is a lot of parity in D1.

Memorial does have pitching after Sullivan. Chris Martin pitched 3 no hit innings on Friday against Spaulding, he pitched well in the fourth, but 6 errors in the inning will tend to negate any good pitching. The game was lost 7 to 4. Without the 7 errors by Memorial it could have easily been a win. Seniors Sullivan and Martin are both on Varsity for their 3rd year. Zach Beckwith is a junior pitcher who has had 2 good outings on the mound this year, 7+ innings today with one run. Memorial bats cooled off as of Friday with the weather.

Haven't seen North or Salem in person yet this year. Not sure what either has for pitching after Turner and Poore. North over Timberlane 14 - 9 yesterday. Not sure if it was bad pitching or bad defense. How will Turner bounce back form 130 pitches on Monday?

Tough one yesterday for Memorial dropping a 1-0 to Pinkerton. Hopefully some day soon this weather will break. I see from the Telegraph this morning that South got a 5-4 win over Winnicunnet. Looks like it really is going to be a very interesting & exciting season.

How about the wild Winny at Central game on Tuesday:

Central won 9 - 8 even though they committed 5 errors and their pitching staff allowed 12 walks. Winny scored 8 runs on only 4 hits.

The game was decided on the last play. Winny was down 9 - 6 heading into their last AB in the top of the 7th. Winny scores 2 runs to cut the deficit to 9 - 8 and has the bases loaded with 1 out. A fly ball is hit to Central RF Pat Landroche. He catches the fly ball for the 2nd out and fires a one hopper to the plate. The ball short hops the chest protector of Central catcher Sean Burke. As Burke leans down to pick up the ball the Winny runner barrells into him. Burke holds on to the ball, but the home plate umpire ruled the Winny runner out for not sliding. The game ends and the runner is tossed out of the game for violating a HS federation rule.

Wow..... JAF- Is that tossed out Winny runner subject to missing Winny's next game also?

That's probably the malicious contact rule not the no sliding rule. I guess the answer to that question depends on whether it's considered an unsportsmanlike act to initiate malicious contact. When you eject someone - you do have to report it to the supervisor of officials who then reports it to the NHIAA. After that it's up to the process and powers that be. If the act is considered unsportsmanlike, then there's a suspension of 1 game for the first offense. The NHIAA baseball policies manual doesn't specifically say that malicious contact is unsportsmanlike, but I'm sure there are those that believe it is.

http://www.nhiaa.org/PDFs/3605/Baseball2011PoliciesandProceduresManual.pdf

As always a ruling open to the interpretation of the umpires on the field.

I see there are 7 games on the NHIAA slate today including the Trinity - Central game. There should be some nice adventures in the outfield in this afternoon's games with these 20 to 50 MPH winds that are blowing around NH today.

This month of April has been horrifically horrid as far as weather goes.

I love how courteous the baseball forum is..."excuse me sir, would you happen to have a ruling on that play kind friend", "why yes, in fact here is some documentation to back up the ruling".

I love it. Like a big breath of fresh spring air.

I just wanted to let nhball9 know that BG played his sleeper team Dover today. BG won 7-0, Gilcrest had a no hitter thru 5 ended up with a 2 hit shutout. I know some people believe BG doesn't have any aces, but somehow the opposing teams average 2 runs a game thru 8 games. Gilcrest threw a 3 hitter at Merrimack and Ferlan pitched a 2 hitter against Salem. The BG coach told me the team era going into todays game was 1.25. That was before the goose egg Dover put up.
Big Joe McCarthy hit an absolute bomb to left center , cleared the fence and then some{one of his 3 hits}. Steve Carboneau hit a bases loaded double that cleared the bases. Tim Lunn and Gilcrest also chipped in with 2 hits apiece.
Eight games in the stats say no team in division 1 gives up fewer runs then Guertin. They might not be aces in some people's opinion, but they sure are in mine. Last 2 seasons it took BG an entire season to get their 6 wins. This year they did it in 8 games. I told everyone Coach Painter was the real deal before the season started. Today he had the boys running wind sprints after the game, because they missed some signs. If only he were here last year, but better late then never.
That's what is great about baseball, the numbers don't lie, and the numbers say Guertin has some serious pitching.

Memo to GNG:

You know I think BG is better than a lot of people thought they were going to be this year.....

.... But

Before you start doing some serious NH Forum gloating please note the following:

The 6 teams BG have beaten so far this season - West, Trinity, Timby, Memorial, Alvrine and Dover have a combined record of
15 -34 so far this season. They are all in the lower half of the D1 standings. BG's 2 losses have been against Merry and Salem. These 2 teams are in the top 5 of the D1 standings.

I don't mean to temper your gloating at the near mid point of the season, but the schedule for BG will get much tougher in the 2nd half. 6 of their remaining 10 games will be against teams in the upper half of the standings as of right now. I'm not saying BG can't go 6 - 4, 7 - 3 or 8 - 2 in their last 10 games, but the Cardinals schedule will get tougher in May.

Tougher schedule going forward or not - BG is playing tough and I see them continuing to do so .... each of their losses have only been by a run and those games could have easily gone the other way. I think GNG's point is that BG's pitching has been quite good and it's worth acknowledging it a bit more than it has been -