After stunning the Rockport Townies in the semifinals last week, Manchester Essex jolted into the ITL championship series against top-seeded Hamilton with confidence. But after dropping two competitive games to open the decisive series, the Mariners faced a win-or-go-home situation on Wednesday night and were unable to keep their season alive.
The result was a 13-6 setback on the road at Patton Park, with Hamilton securing the finals sweep and a third straight ITL crown to boot. The Generals finished the year at 24-4-1 and now have a pretty good claim to being the best team in the 95-year history of Hamilton’s ITL outfit.
“To not drop a playoff game, and outscore our playoff opponents 48-20 ... that says a lot,” said Generals player/manager Brian Nicoll. “We had a great group of guys, a nice mix of guys with experience and some newcomers. It’s been a pretty incredible run these last few years.”
Looking to force a Game 4 this weekend, Manchester grabbed a 1-0 lead on Wednesday but Hamilton answered back by going ahead 4-1 after one. The Generals then exploded for six runs in the fourth, led 12-2 after five and held off a late Mariners rally to sweep for the first time in their current three-peat.
Will Frain tripled, drove in a run and scored while Nick Freni was 2-for-3 with three runs and two RBI. Ryan Monahan added two hits, Connor McClintock doubled and collected three RBI, Carter Coffey scored a pair and Hunter Wilichoski and Luke McClintock collected RBI.
Adam Green threw the first five innings and fanned four to earn the championship clinching win. Coffey and Wilichoski closed it out.
For Manchester, both EJ Field and Cory Burnham mashed doubles, while Tom Connors connected for a big triple. Both Jack Shaw and Cory McCollum were steady on the mound, but the Mariners shot themselves in the foot with a number of costly fielding errors which allowed the majority of the Generals’ runs to score.
If there were an ITL MVP this summer, Luke McClintock (a rising senior at Babson) would be near the top of the list of candidates. Besides going 4-1 with a 1.19 ERA and 53 strikeouts over 41 innings, he batted .362 with 20 RBI. Green was the other horse of Hamilton’s pitching staff, throwing 53 2/3 innings and 53 punchouts and a 2.21 ERA. Coffey, Ryan Hutchinson, Aidan Clarke, Nicoll and Wilichoski all gave the Generals valuable innings over the course of the summer.
Offensively, Nick Freni led the way in run production by hitting .395 with five homers and 22 RBI. Hutchinson contributed a .464 average with 15 RBI while Connor McClintock drove home 15, Wilichoski had 13 RBI and Frain and Tobin Clark-Goldfeld each knocked in a dozen. Aidan Cann also hit .424 with 13 RBI and Will Cooke had a solid summer at .444; the Generals had six regulars bat over .400 and ten players both play at least 10 games and hit over .300.
Hamilton is now the first ITL team to win three straight championships since Manchester claimed five in a row from 2012-16. The Intertown Twilight League goes all the way back to 1929 and has been recognized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the longest running active amateur baseball league in America.
— Sports Editor Nick Giannino contributed to this report
