PORTSMOUTH HERALD

One bad inning dooms Post 32

Exeter drops to 1-2 after hard-fought loss to Nashua

Dan Doyon sports@seacoastonline.com
Exeter Post 32 baserunner Ryan Huppe is tagged out on a steal attempt during his team's game against Nashua on Wednesday at Phillips Exeter Academy. [Mike Zhe/Seacoastonline]

EXETER — Josh Morissette threw some valuable relief innings during a freshman season that ended in Exeter High School’s second straight Division I baseball championship, but Morissette hadn’t started a game since last summer.

He got his opportunity when he took the mound for Exeter Post 32 in Wednesday’s night’s American Legion contest against Nashua Post 124, and he was pretty encouraged with how everything went — with the exception of the top of the fourth inning.

Nashua scored all of the game’s runs of Morissette in the fourth, while Post 124 starting pitcher Joe Brown shut down Exeter through six innings to lead Nashua to a 3-0 District B victory at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Brown allowed three hits, walked three and added three strikeouts in the season opener for Nashua (1-0).

“Overall, I felt good. It was just that one inning that killed me,” Morissette said. “Other than that, everything felt good. Everything was working. My arm felt fresh, I was hitting my spots early. Again, it was that one inning.”

Morissette estimated that he threw 12 innings of relief during the high school season, adding an inning to close out last Thursday’s season-opening 8-7 victory for Post 32 (1-2) over Salem. Morissette showed off his power arm on Wednesday by striking eight in five innings. He allowed three hits, walked two and hit a batter.

“We’re working him back in; he is a talented athlete and he’s going to be fine,” Exeter coach Tim Mitropoulos said. “He maybe got a little tired through the later innings, but it’s important to go through that, make some adjustments and still compete.”

Exeter stranded a pair of runners on base in each of the first two innings, while Morissette struck out five of 10 batters to keep the game scoreless through three innings.

Morissette’s only bad stretch of the night came when he hit Trevor Kelly to begin the fourth, and Mason Matylewski followed two batters later with a RBI double to give Nashua a 1-0 lead.

With two outs, Morissette walked Will Brooks, which set up Nick Dorenzo’s two-run triple to center field that give Nashua a 3-0 cushion.

“I missed a few spots and left it up a little bit,” Morissette. “I wasn’t getting on top of the ball, so it wasn’t getting down enough. I left some up, and they found the gaps.”

Morissette set Nashua down in order in the fifth inning, before Pat Heffernan relieved him with two perfect innings.

“In pitching, you always have got to be on, and that concentration wavered a little bit,” Mitropoulos said. “There were a few batters here and there where he left the ball up and the made him pay.”

Exeter’s offense did little to threaten Brown — a recent Hollis-Brookline graduate — as Post 32 didn’t advance a runner to second base after the second inning. Ryan Huppe, John Hawkins and Sam Malgeri had the only hits for Exeter.

Pat McCarthy pitched the bottom of the seventh to pick up the save.

“Joe competed,” Nashua coach Tim Lunn said. “Early, he really didn’t have his best stuff. He got into some jams, but he beared down and threw strikes when he needed to and he made some big pitches. He kind of cruised through the middle innings, but you could kind of see he was getting tired. Then Pat came and shut the door.”

Post 32 is back in action on Thursday night at Salem.

“We’re going to be in games, we’re going to scratch, we’re going to everything we can to get a victory,” Mitropoulos said. “I’m very happy with how the kids have come out and competed.”