Stoughton High Baseball Holds off Greater New Bedford, Advances to D2 South Semifinals

Check out a postgame video interview with Jake Gibb, Zach Gibb, Mike Connelly, Pat Jackman and Mike Gallagher in the media gallery of this article. 

***

Two of the more entertaining regular season games for the Stoughton High baseball team came against rival Sharon. 

The Black Knights beat the Eagles on the road, 5-2 in 9 innings, back on April 10 for their first win of the season, and won 2-1 on a Pat Jackman walk-off hit in Stoughton on May 6.

The two teams will meet again for a third time, with a trip to the MIAA Division 2 South Sectional Finals on the line.

Sixth-seeded Stoughton beat #3 Greater New Bedford Regional 13-9 Tuesday afternoon on the road in the D2 quarterfinals, while #10 Sharon traveled to #2 Oliver Ames and beat the Tigers 2-0. 

Now, Stoughton and Sharon will play in the D2 semifinals Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Wheaton College. 

After Stoughton took a 7-0 lead at Greater New Bedford after the batting in the top of the second, it appeared as if the Black Knights would head to the semifinals on cruise control, but Greater New Bedford responded with five runs in the bottom of the second to cut the Stoughton lead to 7-5. 

From there the game was a back-and-forth grind, one in which Stoughton always led, but did not put away until in the later innings. 

"To put seven [runs] up in the first two [innings] it was looking like easy sailing," Stoughton coach Mike Armour said. "You got to give Greater New Bedford a little credit - they got the bat on the ball, they fought back and they made it a game."

Up 10-6 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Stoughton appeared to get the third out of the inning, and hold the Greater New Bedford rally to just one run, but a controversial call at first gave Greater New Bedford new life, and the Bears capitalized, scoring three more runs to make it a 10-9 game.

Clinging to the one-run lead Mike Connelly hit a solo home run with one out in the top of the fifth inning to make it 11-9. 

After reliever Sam Werman got into trouble to start the bottom of the fifth, Armour went to his ace Mike Gallagher to get him out of the bases loaded, one out jam. Gallagher delivered, and ended up finishing the game for the Black Knights, tossing 2 and 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.

Gallagher traditionally starts, but in both playoff games this postseason Armour has turned to the junior to close out the game for Stoughton. He has thrown a total of 6 and 2/3 innings of scoreless ball in this D2 South tournament. 

Stoughton added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the sixth with Pat Jackman driving home Zach Gibb, and Connelly singling home Jackman to cap the scoring in what was a wild game.

Stoughton used four pitchers on Tuesday - Will McGrath (1 2/3 innings), Jake Gibb (2 1/3 innings), Sam Werman (1/3 innning) and Gallagher (2 2/3 innings). Gibb, a freshman, loaded the bases in the bottom of the third, but got out of the inning unscathed, showing the poise of an upperclassman.

Mike Dixon, who started Friday's game against Dennis-Yarmouth, and Zach Gibb are the only fresh arms heading into the Sharon game, among Stoughton's regular pitchers. 

"You have to worry about [winning Tuesday]," Armour said.  "So I think [Wednesday] we're going to lean on some guys. It's a big baseball game, guys will want to participate, it is what it is, and we'll go from there."

The first four Stoughton batters against Greater New Bedford - Jackman, Jovani Pires, Connelly and Gallagher all reached base and eventually scored to lead off the game. 

They continued to lead the offense the remainder of the game.

Jackman finished with a double, RBI and scored three times; Pires scored twice and had a pair of doubles; Connelly reached base four times, had three hits, including the homer, and drove in three runs; and Gallagher reached base five times, scoring two runs.

The rest of the lineup contributed as well. 

Pat Raeke had three RBI; McGrath had an RBI and scored a run; Zach Gibb singled and doubled and scored a run; and Jake Gibb had a 2-run single. 

Tuesday's game ended less than 24 hours before the start of Wednesday's semifinal. Sharon is in the same situation, as both teams will be dealing with a quick turnaround when they take the field Wednesday afternoon.