Stevens baseball beats Kearsarge on the road

NORTH SUTTON- It wasn’t the prettiest of games but the Cardinals were able to walk away from Kearsarge Regional High School with an 8-6 victory after a back-and-forth game that saw Stevens trailing after four innings.

Stevens got on the board first with an RBI-groundout from Brendan Bean in the top of the first inning. In the bottom-half of the first, Kearsarge would answer, plating a run. The Cougars added another in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead over the visiting Cardinals.

Stevens bounced back with two runs in the third, with the big hit being a Trey Theriault single that drove in Derrick Stanhope to go up 3-2. Kearsarge picked up two more in the bottom of the third to go up 4-3, but Stevens again had an answer, tying the game at four in the fourth inning with a suicide squeeze bunt from Aidan Cahill that scored Stanhope.

Kearsarge grabbed the lead for the final time in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two more runs. But, the final blow of this punch-for-punch battle would be dealt by Stevens, who delivered the knockout-blow in the top of the fifth, scoring four runs to go up 8-6. In the big fifth inning, Stanhope and Alex Taylor had RBI-singles.

Derrick Stanhope started for the Cardinals and went five-plus innings to earn the win Monday. Drew Grenier came on and pitched the final two innings to record the save. At the plate, Stanhope had a pair of hits, including a double, while scoring a pair of runs, and driving in two runs. Grenier scored 3 times from the lead-off spot, and contributed a hit. Alex Taylor had a hit and an RBI, as did Theriault.

Stevens is now on a three-game win streak as their record improves to 9-6 with just two games remaining in the regular season. The Cardinals host Newfound Wednesday night at 7 p.m. and travel to Fall Mountain on Friday night for another 7 p.m. matchup. Kearsarge falls to 3-12 with their final game at Inter-Lakes on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.