State of Sports: NHIAA baseball contenders are emerging
May 16—WE HAVE REACHED a point in the season where we have a good idea of what's what when it comes to NHIAA baseball.
The contenders have identified themselves in each of the four divisions, and some of those contenders have performed better than expected thus far. Campbell is a prime example.
The Cougars are 11-1 entering today's game against Winnisquam in Tilton. Undefeated Monadnock (12-0), a program that owns a 37-game winning streak, is the only team Campbell is looking up at in the Division III standings.
The Cougars figured to be good this season, but one loss through 12 games is a bit unexpected — especially since Campbell doesn't have a senior on its roster. Talent is talent, however, and Campbell coach Jim Marron said he isn't surprised by his team's record.
"No, I think we had our expectations set realistically that we were going to be in the top tier," Marron said. "We just felt that player-wise. we were in a good place.
"Our pitching staff is deep, one through six in our lineup are tough and our catching has just been incredible."
Campbell earned the No. 9 seed for the 2022 Division III tournament and dropped an 11-1 decision to No. 8 Hopkinton in the tournament's first round. The Cougars graduated three seniors from that team. This year's varsity roster features three juniors, five sophomores and four freshmen. It's tough to be 11-1 in any division when you're that young.
Campbell has a deep pitching staff with Logan Daigle and Jack Kidwell at the front of the rotation. Daigle struck out eight in 61/3 innings when Campbell handed previously unbeaten Bishop Brady a 3-1 loss Friday. Freshman Braydon White recorded the final two outs to get the save.
Campbell's only loss came against Bishop Brady, 6-3, in mid-April.
"It was still cold out, we booted the ball too many times and we gave them too many outs (in the loss)," Marron said. "At the plate, we put the ball in play and we were running the bases and doing our thing, but defensively we were stiff."
White, who leads the team with three home runs, and Kidwell (.420 average) are among the team's leading hitters as well. That group includes sophomore Luke Delia.
Marron said he's also been impressed with freshman Hunter Henderson, one of three good catchers on the roster. Mike Grace and Noah Reed are the others.
Campbell is currently in position to earn one of the two byes awarded in the first round of the division's tournament.
"We have at least six quality pitchers, and it's nice to have that number of guys you can put on the mound at any time," Marron said. "Henderson is a freshman, but he runs a game as good as any senior I've ever coached.
"It's tough to know where you are in high school baseball until you start playing the games, but when you looked around and saw that some (good) teams lost a lot from last year, I thought we were in the top tier of the league."
Three other "contenders" that have been better than expected this season:
Division I: Pinkerton
The Astros won last year's Division I championship and there are some familiar names from the 2022 team on this year's roster, but few of them are pitchers. Pinkerton entered the current season having to replace 130 innings on the mound from last spring.
Nevertheless, Pinkerton is 12-3 — good for second place — entering today's home game against Portsmouth. Casey Watson (5-0, 0.00 ERA in 20 innings), Garrett Hammer (3-1, 1.09 ERA) and Jacob Adrien (3-0, 0.93 ERA) are among those who have stepped up on the mound this season.
Division II: Hanover
The Bears graduated 10 seniors from their 2022 team and returned only two starters (Sam Sacerdote and Jackson McBride), but were the only unbeaten team in Division II heading into Tuesday's home game against Laconia. Every other team in Division II has at least two losses.
Division IV: Newmarket
The Mules, last year's Division IV runners-up, are one of the top programs in the division, but sat in the middle of the pack with a 4-2 record following back-to-back losses to Mascenic (10-6) and Derryfield (16-6). Newmarket avenged both of those losses during its current eight-game winning streak, however, and is alone in third place with a 12-2 record entering Wednesday's game at Farmington.
That record is particularly impressive when you consider Newmarket coach Stan Jurkoic had to call up two eighth graders to round out a small roster this season, plus the Mules were without No. 1 pitcher Graham Willerer for the season's first seven games.
The postseason tournament in each of the four divisions begins June 1.
