LAWRENCE, Mass. — Andover was very, very good. Lawrence's Mike Calzetta was just a bit better.
The righty buckled it up in a nine-inning, 132-pitch marathon, powering Lawrence to a 2-1 win over Andover in a Division 1 North first-rounder before about 500 fans last night.
Calzetta stranded 11 Golden Warriors, striking out 11 at the most opportune times, giving Lawrence its first state tournament win since 2002. Monday afternoon, the fifth-seeded Lancers travel to No. 4 Gloucester (4 p.m.) in the quarterfinals.
"It was Andover, and I knew I had to be at my very best," said the 6-foot-3 Calzetta, who avenged last Sunday's Lawrence Invitational final defeat at the hands of the Warriors. "It's as big a game as we've had, and I can only hope that now we can grab a couple more."
The MVC small school MVP Calzetta, who dazzled Tewksbury in the invitational semis last weekend in a 15-strikeout shutout, moved to 7-1 on the year and raised his whiff total to 79 in 55 2âÑ3 innings of work.
He needed to be that good.
Andover coach Ken Maglio sent unbeaten senior Shawn Carlson (6-0) to the mound, but the San Jacinto (Texas) Community College -bound righty only went a pair of innings, succumbing to a tender ankle he rolled before Tuesday's league all-star game.
"We tried to get Carlson going, but the ankle was just too bad," said Maglio, who then called up the other half of his twin towers, John Farrell.
Farrell has to love the Devlin Field mound.
He's pitched 20 innings on that hill this year and allowed just one earned run with 37 strikeouts on it, including 13 more in six innings of two-hit relief last night.
Each team scraped out early runs. Jovany Fernandez' infield out scoring Juan Ventura, who had doubled and stolen third for Lawrence. Jake Ponti's brilliantly executed suicide squeeze bunt chased home Dan Colombo from third to knot it at 1-1 after three.
With Farrell and Calzetta dealing, it was nothing but zeroes except for the Lawrence half of the sixth. Calzetta reached on an error and advanced on a Dionys Quezada base hit and a Warrior infield error before scoring on a wild pitch.
From there, Calzetta needed nine more outs and got them, leaving the bases loaded in the Andover seventh and allowing just one runner in the ninth.
"Hats off to Calzetta," said Maglio. "He came up big when he needed to. We've had three great games with them. Someone had to win here, so it's tough."
Farrell, who'll pitch at William and Mary next year if he doesn't sign with the pros, ends his career with the toughest of defeats. He walks away as the area leader in ERA (0.87) and strikeouts with 88 in 56.1 innings.
Lawrence 2, Andover 1
Division 1 North first round
Andover (1): Jake Ponti rf 4-0-0, John Hennessy ss 2-0-1, Dan Gusovsky c 5-0-2, Andrew Ruiz-Henriquez cf 3-0-2, Vince Bellino lf 4-0-0, Alex Patti 3b 4-0-1, Mike McQuillan 1b 4-0-1, Dan Colombo dh 4-1-2, Christian Lightner 2b 3-0-0, Shawn Carlson p 0-0-0, John Farrell p 0-0-0, Totals 33-1-9
Lawrence (2): Jose Sandoval 3b 2-0-1, Tito Lluberes 2b 3-0-0, Harvey Blanco ss 3-0-1, Mike Calzetta p 4-1-0, Dionys Quezada c 4-0-1, Danny Cruz dh 4-0-1, Juan Ventura cf 3-1-1, Jovany Fernandez rf 3-0-0, Devin Montanez lf 2-0-0, Totals 28-2-5
RBI: A — Ponti; L — Fernandez
WP: Calzetta; LP: Farrell
Andover:0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0 — 0
Lawrence:0âÇ1âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0âÇ0 — 1
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