MANCHESTER, N.H. – American Legion Baseball season is underway and Manchester’s Sweeney Post 2 started it with a defeat, falling 4-2 to Lebanon’s Guyer-Carignan Post 22 on Friday night.
Sweeney took a first-inning lead of Kyle Swetland’s two-out double, bringing Jamison Reilly and Jack Fitzgerald across the plate.
Guyer-Carignan pitcher Derek Griffin escaped the inning without further damage, inflicting damage of his own at the plate in the second. There, Griffin’s single marked the first of three consecutive baserunners, with eight batters getting to the plate before the inning concluded.
During that rally, Griffin made his way home off a bases loaded walk given to Trey Parker while Kobe Benoit and Cody Turgeon provided Guyer-Carignan with a one-run lead off a Nolan Gantrish single.
Nolan Chickering put the visitors ahead by two runs, coming home after Benoit was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded yet again.
Griffin kept Sweeney’s bats at bay following the early jitters, giving up just four hits in six innings of work, fanning four Post 2 batters while walking just one.
Griffin also went 2-for-4 at the plate, adding his second single in the third.
Parker shifted from right field to pitch the seventh, needing just four at-bats to retire the side and get the save.
Andrew Hadlock also contributed a pair of hits for Guyer-Carignan, making way for a pinch runner in the seventh.
Camren Varney lasted four innings in his start for Sweeney, allowing five hits, a pair of walks and the free base to Benoit in addition to three strikeouts.
Sweeney Post returns to action on Sunday at 3 p.m. as they travel to Alumni Field in Keene to face Gordon-Bissell Post #4
