Manchester, n.h. — From being doubled off to throwing a one-hitter. That’s pretty much how things turned around Saturday for Derek Griffin and the Lebanon Post 22 junior American Legion baseball team at Gill Stadium.

Griffin was doubled off second base Friday night to end his team’s beating at the hands of Dover Post 8. But the rising Lebanon High junior came out pitching with a vengeance less than 24 hours later and allowed just one hit during 6 innings of a 6-2 defeat of Alton Post 72 in a state tournament losers bracket game. The five-day event, which began Friday, utilizes a double-elimination format.

Griffin took a no-hitter into the seventh and retired the first two batters before issuing a walk. The lanky righthander then saw a runner reach first on a Kyle Hammond throwing error and catcher Andrew Hadlock allow a passed ball. A hard line drive over third base broke up Griffin’s no-hit bid. Coach Travis Pelletier relieved him with Trey Parker, who induced a fly ball out to end the game and advance their team to a 2:30 p.m. contest today against Milford Post 23.

“I didn’t want to go out the way I did yesterday,” said Griffin, who sprinted off the field after Friday’s final out and missed the handshake line. “I wasn’t respectful and gave myself a bad name and I wanted to redeem myself. 

“I blew the no-hitter myself because I said something about it to the guys after (Alton’s) first run scored. But we got the win and that’s what matters.”

Griffin, 6 feet 5 and 180 pounds, said his throwing shoulder had been hurting him during the past week but that the pain ceased after he experienced a sudden, sharp pop in it while warming up Saturday. Griffin didn’t disclose the full situation to Pelletier, but it was evident from the start that he didn’t have his normal velocity. 

Counter-intuitively, the lack of zip seemed to make Griffin more effective. Unable to rely on just winging the ball toward home plate, he instead relied on changing speeds and locations, living mostly outside and racking up 10 strikeouts while allowing only three walks. 

“We told him to go see what he could give us,” Pelletier said. “There’s throwers and there’s pitchers and he was definitely a pitcher today. He got ahead of batters and set them up for the next pitch. They didn’t know what was coming and he could pinpoint locations with two strikes.”

Pelletier said Friday’s ride back to the Upper Valley in a rented school bus was a quiet one. His team is usually boisterous but losing for just the third time this summer clearly left an impression.

“The kids came ready to play today,” the coach said. “You get a performance like Derek gave us, you only need a couple of runs and hopefully we’ve gotten all the jittery stuff out of us.”

Said Griffin: “It was embarrassing being the number one team in our division (during the regular season) and then getting beat so badly yesterday.”

Saturday’s game began well for Post 22, which played as the visitors. Leadoff man Cedric Elkouh walked, stole second and scored on Hadlock’s two-out single. Seanon May led off the second with a single, stole second and was singled home by Charlie Goodrich with two outs for a 2-0 lead.

Lebanon (14-3) scored twice during the fifth frame and twice more in the game’s final inning. Post 22 had 10 hits, two each by Hammond, Hadlock and May. Parker and Kyle Kopecky, batting in the seventh and eighth slots, were hitless in a combined seven at-bats and struck out six times, causing Pelletier’s brow to furrow.

“When you strike out that much you’re not putting any pressure on the other team to make plays in the field,” he said. “We’re giving them easy outs. We have to adjust and shorten up some swings. We’re going to look at the lineup and maybe shake it up and move some guys around.”

Notes: Alton finished at 8-8, one of its victories and two of its losses coming against Lebanon… A scary moment occurred during the fifth inning when Hadlock was beaned by a fairly hard pitch. He dropped to his knees with his head on the ground after the ball hit the side of his helmet with a sharp crack. After being down for about 30 seconds, he continued in the game… In attempts to change the team’s luck, Pelletier shaved his full beard and went back to the squad’s old, hand-me-down batting helmets. It had been using the senior team’s newer lids after that squad’s state tournament washout last weekend… Post 22 assistant Carlos Fleming pointed out that only eight of the team’s 15 active players had been to a Legion state tournament before and that just four of that subset experienced any playing time in it last summer…  Estyn Elkouh, the 9-year-old brother of Lebanon players and Enfield residents Cedric and Emrys Elkouh, contined his season-long run as the team’s bat boy.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.

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