SteepleCats Headed to NECBL Divisional Finals

Published on August 6, 2015 under New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
North Adams SteepleCats News Release


SANFORD, ME -- For the third time in the SteepleCats fourteen-year history, North Adams is headed to the divsional finals. The SteepleCats held off the Sanford Mainers for a 5-4 win in eleven innings in the winner-take-all game three from Goodall Park in Sanford, ME Wednesday night. It was the second consecutive extra-inning win for the SteepleCats in a series that saw all three contests decided by one run. The back-to-back wins in elimination games send the SteepleCats to the divisional finals for the first time since 2010.

After the SteepleCats jumped out to a three-run lead in the first inning, Sanford clawed back in the later innings to force the second consecutive extra-inning contest of the series. Jared Habershaw (Eckerd) pitched a scoreless eleventh inning to get the game two win, and was called on in the decisive game three in the ninth inning with the game deadlocked at four. In both the ninth and tenth innings, Sanford got the leadoff man aboard and sacrificed the winning run into scoring position, but Habershaw stranded them both.

Then, after North Adams had grabbed the lead, Habershaw again saw a runner at second with two outs in the home eleventh. WIth the crowd on their feet, Habershaw dropped his signature slider for a swing-and-miss punch out to end the series.

"I just try to simplify everything, as always," Habershaw said. "Having Logan [Boyher, (Columbia)] behind the plate makes it easier. We try to get in a little rhythm and whatever he throws down, I throw. So, he makes my job pretty easy, I don't have to think too much and it doesn't matter what inning it is, the first or the 12th, it doesn't matter to me."

The SteepleCats got three straight hits to start the first inning and take the early lead. Boyher chopped the first pitch of the game up the middle for an infield single. Graham McIntire (Marist) then doubled to move Boyher to third before a single from Hunter Lee (High Point) scored Boyher. McIntire and Lee would also score in the inning. The third run came on a suicide squeeze by Jim Haley (Penn State) to score Lee.

"I kind of got in a hole and [Blake Morgan (North Carolina Central)], made some good pitches," Lee said. "Luckily, I put a bat on the ball and put the ball in play that fell and got that run in the first inning, which was a huge momentum swing."

John Erhardt (California San Diego) got his second start in six days for North Adams. He was coming off his best outing of the year last Friday, but raised the bar in Wednesday's playoff bout. He held the Mainers to just one hit through five innings. Erhardt came back out for the sixth, getting the first two outs of the inning before a single by Nate Stepna (Cochise) and four-pitch walk to Shaine Hughes (Monmouth) chased him from the game.

"To be honest, I was pitching on short rest there, I just kind of ran out of gas," Erhardt said.

Tanner Bird (Franklin PIerce) came on to clean up the inning. He allowed one inherrited runner to score on a single, but stranded the other, keeping North Adams up two runs. It was the only out Bird recorded in the game; Tanner appeared in two games in the series.

"It's great," Bird said. "The people around here love it. They really enjoy it, we really enjoy it. All these kids have really embraced who they are and...it's a great time. I'm happy to be where I am with this team and the coaches that we have. It's a fun time."

North Adams got the run back the very next inning when Lee drove in his second run of the game, plating Conrad Ziemendorf (SUNY Cortland) in the seventh.

"I hit a line drive up the middle which was deep enough to score Conrad," Lee said. "It was a great win."

The Mainers were not going down quietly. Following a one-run sixth, they put up two in the seventh and one in the eighth. Sam Dexter (Southern Maine) doubled off Parker Perez (Jacksonville) to lead off the bottom of the 7th. Dexter would later advance to third before scoring on a double from Andruw Gazzola (Stony Brook). Gazzola later would score to cut it to 4-3 when Perez hit Hughes with the bases loaded.

It took only two batters in the bottom of the 8th to make it 4-4. Dan Hetzel (Cochise) had a leadoff triple and Dexter's sacrifice fly scored Hetzel. It could have been worse for North Adams. The sacrifice fly was an acrobatic diving catch by McIntire in left, which cleared the bases and stalled the momentum for the Moose, who wouldn't score again in the game.

Scoreless themselves since that seventh-inning run, the 'Cats got the game-winner 11th. With Michael Babb (Jacksonville) at first and one out, Mainer short stop Brendan Skidmore got a tailor-made double-play ball but booted it, allowing Boyher to reach and Babb to get to third. McIntire then lofted a pop fly down the left-field line. Skidmore coasted under the ball but had it kick off his glove, falling to the turf as the 500-plus crowd fell silent watching Babb touch the plate. Four errors by Sanford led to two unearned runs in the win for North Adams.

"Sanford, they're a very good team," said McIntire, who was 2-for-6 with a run scored. "They have great pitching...We were able to fight through their pitching, because it was so good.

McIntire didn't get credit for an RBI on the game winner, but he was outstanding for the SteepleCats in the series. He had five hits in the series, two doubles, with four runs batted in and two runs scored.

The SteepleCats look to carry the momentum of back-to-back thrilling wins into the Division Finals, where they take on the North regular-season champion Vermont Mountaineers. Tthe Mountaineers will have home field advantage in the series, just like the Mainers had in the first round. In addition to seeking its first ever appearance in the NECBL Championship Series, the SteepleCats have never beaten the Mountaineers in a playoff game (0-4). The last time North Adams made the playoffs was in 2013, when Vermont swept them in the first round. The 'Cats were 2-4 against the Mountaineers in the regular season, but were also 2-4 against the Mainers. Vermont is coming off an opening round sweep of the Laconia Muskrats, outscoring Laconia 23-5 in the two-game thrashing.

"We've been told we can't do it," Lee said. "We've heard that, 'You can't do this, you're not going to make the playoffs, you can't beat Sanford' and we just keep proving everybody wrong."

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from August 6, 2015


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central