Crusaders sneak past Nashoba
Zhang bolts home with winning run
GROTON » Longtime Groton-Dunstable Regional baseball coach Matt LeBlanc has always preached aggressive base-running by his teams, and Monday’s Central Mass. Division 1 Tournament first-round game against No. 13 Nashoba Regional was no exception.
With no one out in the bottom of the seventh, G-D starting pitcher Isaac Zhang went to third from first on a Nate Glencross single, then stole home on an attempted squeeze to walk-off the Wolves, 5-4.
The win lifts the fourth-seeded Crusaders to 11-4, and they will host No. 12 Algonquin Regional on Wednesday. Nashoba’s season concluded at 4-12.
The Wolves had tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the sixth thanks to two runs by the middle of the order, yet had the bases loaded with one out and could not inflict further damage. Not only that, NRHS had held Groton-Dunstable off in the home half of the inning when the hosts had runners on second and third with one out, but the Crusaders couldn’t drive in the runs. And Nashoba then went 1-2-3 in the seventh.
“Bases loaded with one out in the top of the sixth and we couldn’t get a run in,” said longtime Wolves coach Chuck Schoolcraft. “If we had capitalized, that would have been the game.”
Nashoba then walked G-D’s Zhang to lead off the home half of the seventh, before Glencross hit the first pitch he saw to center. Zhang got on his horse and booked it all the way over to third. Jake Figueroa was then intentionally walked to load the bases, setting up a force at any base before Alex Bushnell flew out to right for the first out.
And with Nashoba’s infield playing in and Riley Curran facing a 1-1 pitch, LeBlanc had Chang take off hard down the line.
The pitch was outside and low, which allowed Chang to slide in with the winning run.
“I had one of my better baserunners on third,” LeBlanc explained. “He got a good jump and slid to get in. Kudos to Isaac. I told him to treat it as a steal of home.”
G-D plated solo runs in the second and third — Glencross in the second on Curran’s sac bunt,
Nate Bushnell in the third on Zhang’s RBI single — before Nashoba plated two to tie it in the top of the fifth. Justin Klishhamer and Max Zhoa came inn James Borsari’s groundrule double to left center.
But the Crusaders reclaimed the lead in the next half inning.
Doug Tompkins singled before he stole second, then went to third on Nate Bushnell’s grounder back
to Borsari, who went 4 1/3 innings for the Wolves.
Zhang then tripled in Tompkins to make it 3-2 on what was Borsari’s last pitch.
Zhang then scored on a passed ball, making it 4-2.
LeBlanc admitted afterward that he didn’t believe the game was over at that point.
“Not with Chuck on the other side,” he said. “I’ve been in too many games against his teams. I knew they’d be there in the end. We thought four runs would be enough with our defense. We needed five.”
Nashoba then tied it up with one out as it went after the Groton-Dunstable bullpen: Zhang went four full and was lifted after 65 pitches, having struck out two but having excellent defense behind him, save one error that did not harm him.
In the sixth, Patrick Arsenault roped a base hit to right before he stole second. Klishhamer and Zhoa then walked to load the bases before back-to-back singles by Peter Ojerholm and Borsari delivered Arsenault and Klishhamer to tie the game at 4.