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Londonderry finds friendly road in playoff-opening win

MANCHESTER – Forced to the road in defense if its title, the Londonderry High baseball team once again looks quite at home in these Division 1 playoffs.

Last night, the reigning champ Lancers, seeded ninth, took out No. 8 Manchester Memorial here at Gill Stadium, 13-2.

The Lancers will now face rival Pinkerton Academy, the top seed, on the Astros home turf in the quarters, Saturday at 4 p.m.

Give credit to Londonderry coach Brent Demas, who is clearly again in this thing to win it.

Saving his proven pitchers for Saturday or beyond, Demas went with senior Matt Ross, a lefty with just 16.2 innings of work under his belt.

Ross came up huge, working five innings for the victory and allowing just the two runs on four hits. He walked three and struck out two.

Offensively, with the score tied at 2-2, Londonderry broke it open by sending 11 hitters to the plate in a six-run fourth inning.

Tim McEachern doubled in Nick Musto to open the onslaught. Jimmy Zimolka followed with an RBI hit, and with a couple walks thrust into the mix, Colby Joncas slapped a two-run single. Jonny Meskell capped things with a two-run double of his own.

From there, it was all Ross and for the final two frames, Joncas, taking care of duties on the mound.

Joncas finished the night 3-for-4 with three RBIs, Zimolka and Nick Musto had two hits each.

Talk about quiet-but-deadly production. Geoff Kayo registered no at-bats in his five plate appearances. He walked all five times and scored four runs.

Pinkerton and Londonderry split two games during the regular season with each winning at home.

Both Musto (6-0) and Mike Ryan, who beat the Astros 3-0 back in mid-April are ready and available.