At various points this season, the Cambridge Rindge and Latin baseball team found itself losing but managed to find a way to win. The Falcons couldn’t find the same magic in its semifinal game of the MIAA Division I tournament against Catholic Memorial on Tuesday, losing 6-1 and ending their extraordinary season.
“We just couldn’t get enough hits,” said Coach Robert Merrill. “As far as the season goes, it’s the best we ever had. It’s a pretty special group of guys that battled all the way to the end.”
Cambridge, which entered the game with a 14-game winning streak, scored its only run in the first inning. Oliver Henke swung at the first pitch of the game and lined a single to right field. He later scored on a groundout by Stefan Alexandrov.
In the bottom of the second inning, Alexandrov walked Catholic Memorial’s leadoff batter, Carson McCarthy, who later scored on a sacrifice fly. The next batter lined out to Alexandrov and it appeared that he might work his way out of the inning having allowed only one run. But the next two batters reached, and with the bases loaded, Liam McKinney poked a soft line drive toward the left field foul line. Left fielder Linus Henke dove for the ball but came up short, and three runs crossed the plate.
That would be more than enough for the Knights, whose starter, Jacoby Hogencamp, allowed only three hits, struck out seven, and walked one. That one walk came to Logan Sherwood with one out in the fourth and CRLS losing, 4-1. Sherwood tried to give his team a spark and took off for second but was caught stealing on a perfect strike from catcher Timmy Mills. It was that kind of day for the Falcons.
“Credit to their guy,” Merrill said. “He settled in after the first inning. He really shut us down.”
Despite the disappointing loss, Merrill believes the team will soon be able to reflect on a historic season that took the Falcons deeper into the postseason tournament than they had ever gone.
“I told the guys after the game, the further you go into this, the more it hurts when you lose,” he said. “But maybe tomorrow you’ll think back on what a special season it was for us. We were the last public school standing (in the tournament), we took out BC High and won our league. A lot of things that we’ve never done before, we did this year.”
“So I think in a couple days, when we get a little distance from the hurt it’ll be positive reflections. But right now it hurts.”
Nikko Santos, one of eight graduating seniors, said, “We’ve been together since we were eight years old on summer teams. Every picture that we have, it’s the same eight to ten kids on the same team. So it was really special to get this far with these guys. It’s hard for it to come to an end, but I love these guys with all my heart.”
Catholic Memorial will play for the championship against Bishop Feehan and two-sport standout Brody Bumila.
A stronger
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