HMS Baseball Finishes Second in Regular Season, Fall in Semis

Taking a look back at the middle school baseball world, when last we checked in, Hudson Memorial had reached a milestone in their program. For the first time in school history, the roster included a young woman-sixth grader Gabbie Nichols. Now, the Colts have made their way into the playoffs, finishing the regular season at 9-1 and earning themselves the second seed in the Tri-County Division I playoffs and a bye directly into the semifinals.


Hudson Memorial made their schedule look like a cakewalk for much of the season, opening up with a quick 3-0 win over the Windham Wildcats in just an hour and 27 minutes. Their Opening Day victory was mainly thanks to Jasper Workman’s six shutout innings on the mound where he scattered just two hits by striking out 11 batters. Gavin Baviello, who had two hits and a run scored on the night, came on in the seventh inning for the save.
In their second game of the season, the Colts traveled to Nashua to take on the Elm Street Eagles in what was the two teams’ second-to-last-ever matchup with Elm Street being slated to close at the conclusion of the school year in favor of a new middle school in Nashua a few years down the road. HMS made quick work of the Eagles, defeating them 4-1 on the road. Baviello picked up the win for Memorial, going five innings. scattering a hit and a walk as well as making a pair of errors into a moot point. The Eagles were held without a hit until there were two outs in the fourth when Baviello allowed the first hit against him. Cam St. Clair came on in the sixth inning and pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Baviello on just 14 pitches. Kylar Cox pitched the seventh, allowing the lone Eagles’ run to score on a one-out single.
HMS had to bounce back quickly, playing host to the Timberlane Tigers the next day. Hudson came away with a 10-6 victory at home thanks to their bats this time, as they picked up ten runs on nine hits and were helped by five Tiger errors and five walks. On the mound, Jasper Workman didn’t have his best stuff, but was also not helped by his defense, who committed three errors behind him in 6.1 innings of work. Workman did allow nine hits and three walks in the process of allowing six runs with two of them being earned.
Playing their third game in as many days, Hudson Memorial played Merrimack at home and finished them off in five innings, winning 12-2 by way of the mercy rule. The game entered its fifth inning of play with the Colts up 4-2 before the wheels fell off on the mound for Merrimack as they allowed eight runs on four walks, a hit batter, a double, a triple, a single, and an error that ultimately finished the game for the Colts.
The Colts came out of April vacation riding a four-game winning streak and taking on top contender Ross Lurgio Middle School in Bedford. They were handed their lone season loss on a rainy afternoon in that contest in just five innings as Ross Lurgio came out on top 10-0. Walks and errors were HMS’ undoing in that contest, as Jasper Workman walked five batters and the Colts’ defense committed a pair of costly errors in the field that led to six unearned runs.
Angered by the blowout loss in Bedford, Hudson Memorial started the month of May with a trip to Goffstown to play Mountain View Middle School, and they got back to what the team excels at in that contest, winning 4-2 behind six innings from Cam St. Clair who allowed two runs, both earned, on two hits and three walks while striking out five and getting the win. Memphis Beach picked up a hold and Gavin Baviello got the save, eventually shutting the door on Mountain View.
The next afternoon, Hudson Memorial played host to Londonderry in their penultimate regular season home game and got the win 6-2, again behind solid pitching. This time in the form of a complete game from Gavin Baviello who allowed two runs, just one of them earned, on four hits while striking out three and walking two. HMS also picked up seven hits on the night with Heath Haynes leading the way for Memorial, collecting two hits and two RBI on the afternoon. Cole Baker also had a hit and two RBI for HMS.
The Colts then played their final home game of the season, eighth-grade night, in what became the first of three shutouts to finish the regular season, picking up the win 7-0 against Elm Street in what turned out to be the final meeting the two teams will ever have. HMS got 5.2 innings from Gavin Baviello and 1.1 from Memphis Beach in the win. The two combined for nine strikeouts while only allowing one hit, a single with one out in the top of the seventh, and walking four batters with all four walks coming off Baviello. Offensively, HMS picked up 11 hits on the night two from Baviello, one from Beach, three from both Cam St. Clair and Cole Baker, and one from both Jasper Workman and Chris Carey. St. Clair and Baker also each drove in three runs in the Colts’ seventh win of the season.
HMS finished off their regular season with two road games, one that was scheduled against the Woodbury Warriors, and another in Merrimack that was a makeup game from a late-season rainout. The Colts picked up wins against both squads, beating Woodbury 10-0 on May 17 and Merrimack 11-0 to close out the regular season on May 21. Cam St. Clair picked up the abbreviated five-inning shutout for the Colts against Woodbury, just allowing two hits while striking out two and not walking a batter while his team scored 10 runs on six hits and were helped by 13 total walks by the Woodbury pitching staff.
Their final regular season matchup against Merrimack was a similar story with Jasper Workman picking up a two-hit shutout of his own, striking out ten and walking just one while his team scored 11 runs on nine hits, and earning eight walks on the offensive side of the ball.
The Colts finished the regular season 9-1, good for a second seed, and after Woodbury upset third-seeded Windham in the first round, the Colts played the sixth-seeded Warriors in the semifinals with a trip to Bedford on June 4 on the line.
HMS was unable to pick up the win on Friday, losing a tough battle 10-5 to the Woodbury Warriors, who will continue their Cinderella run as the sixth seed on the road against fifth-seeded Mountain View on Tuesday in Goffstown.
Cam St. Clair got the ball to start things off for the Colts, and, despite not having his best stuff, St. Clair managed to get through five gutsy innings, allowing eight runs on six hits, only four of the runs being earned. He also struck out five and walked two. Jasper Workman pitched the final two innings of the Colts’ season, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out one batter. Neither run charged to Workman was earned.
Offensively, Hudson Memorial jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second and looked to be poised to run away with the game as Nick Mitchell had a two-out double, Chris Carey followed that with a single to put runners on the corners, Gavin Baviello hit an RBI double, and Cam St. Clair helped himself out with a two-RBI hit. HMS also picked up a run in the fourth and the seventh, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the Warriors got five in the third and five in the sixth to put the game on ice.
HMS finishes fourth in Tri-County Division I with their loss after the top-seeded Ross Lurgio Lions lost to Mountain View in another upset on Friday. Thus far in the Division I tournament, the visiting team has won all four games with Mountain View beating Elm Street on the road and Woodbury beating Windham in Windham in the first round, as well as Mountain View beating Ross Lurgio in Bedford and Woodbury coming to Hudson and shocking the Colts on their home field, the team’s first home loss of the season.

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