D-S magical run ends
Rockets rally late
WORCESTER — In its final turn at-bat, Auburn put the finishing touches on a magical season.
Deadlocked with Dover-Sherborn in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Rockets strung together a threerun rally that included the go-ahead RBI single from Luke Matthews as Auburn knocked off the Raiders, 4-1, to claim the Division 3 state championship at Holy Cross yesterday.
The win gives Auburn (21-4) its third state title in program history.
Rockets starter Matt Palmer surrendered a lone run in the top of the fifth, but otherwise was in complete control en route to a complete game.
Auburn coach Eric Swedberg credited his senior class with leading a relatively young team.
“We only had three returning seniors and we thought we may have a hard time,” said Swedberg. “Hats off to our seniors, they came into our season blind.
“We had a lot of young guys step up and our seniors have been at the root cause of that.”
The loss ends a terrific run for Dover-Sherborn (17-9), which played in the state championship for the first time in school history.
It appeared as though the Raiders could have one more magical win in them.
But with one out in the sixth, Auburn’s Josh Tower reached on a throwing error to put the go-ahead run on base.
An errant pickoff throw allowed Tower to go all the way to third base and two batters later, Matthews brought Tower home with an RBI single.
Colin McKeon and Mike Collins followed up with consecutive RBI hits to put Auburn up, 4-1, after six innings.
Auburn took a 1-0 lead in the first as Steve Saucier singled, advanced to second on an error, and scored on an RBI double off the bat of Brian Sarkisian.
Dover-Sherborn, however, was able to tie the game in the fifth inning as Trevor Bowman and Jon Musgrove both singled and Matt Strong successfully executed a suicide squeeze that scored Bowman and evened the game at 1-1.