HAVERHILL, Mass. — By the time it found a way to nick up Arlington High starter Mike Griffin, Haverhill's afternoon and season were pretty much over.

Ronnie Rosario singled sharply to left with one out in the sixth to end Griffin's no-hit bid. But by that time, No. 17 Arlington had ridden three Hillie errors to a 9-0 lead, ultimately stopping No. 16 Haverhill in the Division 1 North tourney preliminary round, 9-2.

"We haven't played a game in six days, and we had a week of poor practice," said Hillie coach Chip Dunn. "Today, we played like we practiced. It's too bad because this group of kids really overachieved. They worked hard every day, right through the regular season."

All three Hillie miscues came in the third, where starter Trevor Behrendt absorbed six unearned runs to finish his at 6-4.

"Poor Behrendt, that's two straight games where we struggled behind him. Six unearned runs in an inning takes a lot out of you," said Dunn of his right-hander. "In the last two games (including Monday's 12-11 loss to Central) he threw outs for us and got nothing to show for it."

The Hillies, who endured injuries that limited stopper Taylor Robinson to 132âÑ3 innings all season and kept Brendon Bretton off the mound entirely, finished at 11-8.

"At the beginning of the year, I said I'd have been happy if we played .500 baseball and we did better than that."

Haverhill finished with six hits off Griffin, with Bretton swatting a pair.

Robinson had the lone RBI on a base hit in the sixth.

Arlington 9, Haverhill 2

Division 1 North preliminary round

Arlington (9): Sleeder cf 5-1-2, Connor ss 5-1-1, Griffin p 4-0-0, O'Loughlin rf 5-0-1, Fitzgerald 3b 5-1-1, O'Hare c 5-0-1, Davos 2b 4-3-2, Culty lf 3-2-0, Calcagno dh 5-1-1, Nuzzell 1b 0-0-0, Totals 41-9-9

Haverhill (2): Chasse cf 3-1-0, Bresnahan ph 1-0-0, Rosario c 3-0-1, Cronin c 0-0-0, Robinson 1b/p 3-0-1, Munoz 2b 0-0-0, Xia dh 3-0-0, Behrendt p 2-0-0, Ieronimo lf 2-0-0, Pickles ss 2-0-0, Mendez ss 1-0-0, Cox rf 3-1-1, Baez ph 1-0-0, Kimball 3b 3-0-1, Ruth ph 1-0-0, Bretton rf/1b/cf 4-0-2, Dubois 2b 0-0-0, Totals 30-2-6

RBI: H — Robinson; A — Sleeder 4, Connor, O'Loughlin

WP: Griffin; LP: Behrendt

Arlington (13-8): 061 011 000 — 9

Haverhill (11-8): 000 000 000 — 2