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Sports

Legion baseball: Derry drubs Salem in darkness-shortened game

By Kyle Andreoni
sports@eagletribune.com
Published: July 1, 2009

DERRY, N.H. — Derry rolled to an 8-1 lead over Salem before the game was called for darkness after the top of the eighth inning.

Derry has won two straight after losing the first three while Salem fell to 0-3.

Derry's P.J. Singster pitched his second complete game of the season, allowing one earned run.

"He pitches to contact," said Derry coach Dylan Mullin.

Singster induced four double plays, including one in the sixth after taking a line drive to the calf by Rob Liberatore. Singster told his coach it just grazed his calf and he'd be fine.

"He's a tough kid," said Mullin.

Singster is seeing much more action in his second year playing for Derry.

"He was a young sophomore last year," said Mullin. "He pitched a lot of Junior Legion. Him and Brandon Bell are 1 and 1A."

Although Singster doesn't have massive strikeout numbers, he has gotten the job done mixing his pitches.

"I tried to keep them off balance," said Singster.

Singster believes he learned a lot after this past junior year at Timberlane, which included a no-hitter against Manchester Memorial.

"He kept them off balance all day," said Mullin. "He seems to come into his own. Our defense was there today and we made all the plays that we needed to make."

The bottom third of Derry's lineup scored four runs. T.J. Souhlaris (3 for 4, 2 runs, 2 RBIs) starred in the eighth spot.

Mullin said, "It takes a while for everybody to come together. A lot of these kids haven't played together. We've got kids from Raymond and Pelham, and the college kids came back."

Mullin believes the veterans like Pat Curry, Nick Gregsak, Joey Guidi and Tyler Pacheco add the leadership to the otherwise youthful team.

Salem is looking to get off the schneid.

"You can't make 7-8 errors and win baseball games,'' Salem coach John Ryan said. "It's not fair to our pitching staff."

Liberatore, an Eagle-Tribune All-Star hockey goalie who no longer plays baseball for Salem High, did well after coming off the bench in the second inning.

He and Connor McGuire each had two hits.

Derry 8, Salem 1

Salem Post 63 (1): Jordan Estevez ss 1-0-1, Rob Liberatore 2-0-2, C.J. DeMarco 3b 3-0-0, Darren Brown cf 3-0-0, Shawn Yelle lf 3-0-0, Sam Fazioli 1b 3-0-1, Jared Scali rf 3-0-0, Connor McGuire dh 3-1-2, Josh Treff c 3-0-0, Matt Gioia 2b 3-0-0. Totals 27-1-6.

Derry Post 9 (8): Tyler Pacheco 2b 5-1-1, Nick Gregsak lf 5-1-1, Zack Mathieu 1b 4-0-2, Pat Curry c 4-0-0, Joey Guidi 3b 4-1-1, Steve Curry cf 4-1-1, Ryan Feeney ss 4-1-0, T.J. Souhlaris rf 4-2-3, Corey Couillard dh 4-1-0. Totals 38-8-9.

Salem (0-3): 001 000 00x —1

Derry (2-3): 100 203 2xx — 8

RBI: D — Souhlaris 2, Pacheco, Gregsak, Mathieu, Couillard; S — Liberatore. WP: Singster; LP: Poore

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