Gloucester Alumni

By Nick Curcuru
Staff Writer, Gloucester Daily Times

BROCKTON — We let them off the hook too many times.

That's what Gloucester senior centerfielder Ross Carlson said following the Fishermen's 8-3 defeat at the hands of Boston College High School last night at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton.

BC High, the defending state champions, will look to repeat as they take on St. John's of Shrewsbury (10-9 winners over Westfield last night) on Saturday at LeLacheur Park in Lowell.

The Fishermen (20-5), may have outhit their opponents 13-8, but Gloucester left 10 men on base and committed five errors in the loss.

Gloucester left the bases loaded in the first inning, left runners on second and third in the third and yielded five unearned runs.

"It was a lack of timely hitting," Carlson said. "We played like the team in the third week of the season, not the team that just ran through the Division 1 North state tournament."

BC High starter Jeff Rowan picked up the win throwing seven innings, allowing just one run on ten hits and five strikeouts.

Gloucester starting pitcher Taylor Burbine was also impressive in defeat, pitching 5 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and just three earned runs while striking out six.

"Taylor was outstanding," Gloucester head coach Joe Orlando said. "You take away the errors his line is much different. But that's baseball, our run had to end sometime, we were just hoping it ended on Saturday and not tonight."

Burbine also drew praise from BC High head coach Norm Walsh. "(Burbine) pitched one of the better games against us this year," Walsh said. "He was throwing curveball after curveball and he was very tricky. But we stuck with our game plan and stayed aggressive. Plus we hit well in clutch situations."

The Eagles aggression did not pay off early on as Fishermen catcher Brett Cahill threw out two runners attempting to steal second base in the first two innings.

Still, Walsh kept the pressure on and it paid off as the Eagles frequently took extra bases and benefitted from a couple of overthrows that led to runs.

"We got a couple of runners thrown out early on but we stuck with it," Walsh said. "In the end it really paid dividends."

The Fishermen threatened early on with seven hits in the first four innings but were not able to get a run across the plate.

Gloucester ended up with 10 hits before scoring a run in the top of the seventh inning.

"In the first four or five innings we had a number of guys in scoring position," Orlando said. "If we would have been able to push a couple of those runs across early it could have given us the momentum we needed."

The Eagles (21-4) broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning when shortstop Rob McCunney tripled down the right field line scoring Tyler Horan who reached on an infield single. McCunney then came in to score when the Fishermen threw the ball away attempting to throw out the speedy shortstop on his way to third base.

BC High added another unearned run in the third inning when Kyle Larrow scored on a McCunney ground ball to third base after reaching on a throwing error to give the Eagles a 3-0 lead.

It was the bottom of the sixth inning, however, when the Eagles broke the game wide open, scoring five runs in the frame.

Eagles right fielder Brandon Cipolla made it 4-0 when he singled in Nick Napoli who led off the inning with a walk. Billy Kiley made it 5-0 one batter later when he came in to score on a wild pitch after reaching on an error. A Larrow sacrifice fly plated Cipolla with the Eagles sixth run.

BC High added two more runs in the frame when catcher Brendan Collins scored on a throwing error and Horan scored on a Billy Hocking single.

"They are just an outstanding team," Orlando said. "If you make mistakes against a team like that they will make you pay, and they made us pay."

The Fishermen finally got on the board in the seventh inning when Trevor Curley's bloop single scored Conor Ressel who walked.

Cusick brought the Fishermen to within six in the bottom of the ninth with a two-run home run over the right field fence, making it 8-3.

With a memorable season in the books, Orlando had nothing but positive things to say about his team.

"The kids will be talking about this season for the rest of their lives," Orlando said. "They are disappointed right now but they have nothing to hang their heads over. They are the Division 1 North champions, and nobody can ever take that away from them."