LEBANON — “No!” shouted Pete St. Pierre in an anguished voice. “No! No!”

The Lebanon American Legion Post 22 baseball business manger and scorekeeper watched catcher Jackson Cote’s errant throw sail over leaping third baseman Sam Loescher and bounce down the left-field line.

The wayward toss on a stolen base attempt allowed the final two runs to score during what proved to be a 9-7 loss to Laconia Post 1 on Sunday at Lebanon High.

The hosts led 3-0 after three innings and 7-3 following six frames, although they left the bases loaded during the third inning. With no outs, the hosts recorded two strikeouts and Lebanon resident and St. Paul’s School student Connor Pollard was erased at home while trying to score on a wild pitch.

Recent Fall Mountain High graduate Dominic Nutting held Laconia to four hits while striking out seven batters, while walking none and hitting two in six-plus innings.

All that was needed for victory were three more outs, but seemingly simple tasks have often proven difficult this summer for Lebanon.

Nutting, fast approaching the 105-pitch limit for a single outing, threw balls on his first two pitches of the seventh inning and was replaced first by Stevens High’s Ty Therriault and then Holderness School student Zander Doyle, neither of whom regularly take the mound.

Walks, hits and errors piled up and the visitors scored six times against a foe missing several players because of injuries, work commitments and vacation.

Post 22 sits in last place in District A, with a record of 1-13, eliminated from postseason contention for the second consecutive year.

“These kids are young and there’s a lot of pressure when you throw them in the fire like that,” St. Pierre said of a team that’s been outscored 131-46, allowed double-digit runs on eight occasions and was thrown out running the bases seven times in Sunday’s loss.

Longtime Post 22 coach Rob Woodward declined comment but had sounded an optimistic tone on June 20 after a 13-2 loss to Manchester’s Sweeney Post 2 dropped his team to 0-4.

“We’re going to take some lumps, but as long as we keep progressing, we’ll be ok,” said the onetime Boston Red Sox pitcher, who held a lengthy, postgame meeting that afternoon. “Now, we’re going to see a change, I think.”

Lebanon earned its lone victory the next day at Laconia (4-7), which is sixth in the seven-team district.

There was no team meeting after Sunday’s game, the players and coaches exiting school grounds in a matter of minutes. Nutting, Therriault, Loescher and Sunapee’s Hunter Morse each had two hits.

“The speed of play is a lot more than I’ve been used to and there’s been a lot of learning,” said Loescher, a rising Hanover junior who saw sporadic action for the Bears varsity this spring. “We practice pretty much every day and for a long time, too. Woody’s an old-school coach who’s not afraid to point out mistakes but he helps you get better.”

Some of Post 22’s junior Legion players are better and older than some of the senior squad’s competitors, but wanted to remain on the lower level for another summer so they could be with their friends.

Onetime Post 22 competitors and Norwich residents Sam Sacerdote and Ben Williams play on a national level team for the New England Ruffnecks club organization.

Hanover High pitcher Jake Toulmin is playing club with the Concord Cannons, while recently graduated teammates Casey Graham, Josh Bucci and Wes Stocken aren’t playing baseball.

Former Stevens standout Owen Taylor is working a summer job in engineering, his college major.

Lebanon High graduate Braeden Falzarano played three Legion games before going on vacation. The lefthander won’t be available to pitch upon his expected return this week because of arm issues, St. Pierre added.

Sunday, Kimball Union Academy standout Micah McGinley-Smith was out with an injury and recent Hanover High graduate Ian Hedgepeth was working. Rising Lebanon High sophomore George Tafe played despite a swollen knee suffered earlier in the week when he crashed into the outfield fence while shagging batting-practice flies.

That left Post 22 with one substitute and no experienced pitchers once Woodward yanked Nutting, who’s headed to Castleton University in a couple of months.

Lebanon will conclude the regular season this week with four games, including its final home game of the season on Tuesday against Weare.

“Inexperience is hurting us right now,” Woodward said after the June 20 game. “If we could get rid of the basic errors, we could win a couple ball games, but they’re haunting us right now. We’ve got young kids who haven’t played this caliber of baseball and it’s over the top of a few of them.

“I think they’re learning more than they think they’re learning but it’s a rough time.”

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.

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