Hanover — Hanover High junior right-hander David Lehmann has been the Marauders’ most consistent pitcher this season.
He doesn’t throw hard, as Hanover head coach John Grainger acknowledged after Wednesday’s 6-3 win over Lebanon at Dartmouth College’s Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.
But his pitches have been accurate enough to keep the Marauders in games.
That was the case yet again against the Raiders despite the unfamiliar surroundings. Lehmann struck out only two and gave up five hits, four walks and two earned runs, but he forced Lebanon hitters into groundouts and popups all afternoon to help the Marauders get back to .500 at 4-4.
“He’s the high school equivalent of Greg Maddux,” Grainger said, referencing the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves.
“He’s won four games,” the second-year coach added. “At least three of those have been complete games. (Lehmann) has been a huge part of our success.”
Hanover, with the victory, surpassed last season’s win total. The team finished 3-14 last year.
The Marauders had lost the previous two games coming into Wednesday’s outing — 5-1 on May 1 to Souhegan and 5-4 on May 4 vs. Con-Val — and been successful when their offense has found a rhythm. Hanover, which amassed nine hits against Raider pitchers Nate Perkins and Caleb Broughton, is 4-0 when scoring at least six runs.
“We played really well,” Lehmann said. “Early in the season, we were making a lot of mental errors. There wasn’t any of that today. Just focus. I think that was a big part of the win.”
Added Grainger: “(Perkins) was leaving the ball up in the zone early on. I just told (my team) to be aggressive. We got some hard outs early on. They started making some mistakes, and we capitalized.”
Lebanon head coach Doug Ashey attributed his team’s loss, its third in four games and second in a row, to a lack of hits. The Raiders fell to 4-7 and have been outscored, 70-39. They’ve scored more than six runs only once.
“They out-hit us,” Ashey said. “Every ball we hit fairly solid we hit right at them, and they made the plays. Give Hanover the credit, tip our hats. We split the season with them.”
The Raiders, who started 0-3, got their first win on April 18 over Hanover, 6-5, courtesy a two-RBI walk-off single by Joey Dupree at Lebanon High.
Hanover got off to a shaky start on Wednesday, committing two errors against Lebanon’s first two batters. Lebanon lead-off man Broughton scored from third on a sacrifice fly from Nate Gariepy with no outs.
Lehmann said it took a while to get comfortable.
“I wasn’t hitting my spots too well in the beginning,” he said. “Everything was coming up a little high. This mound seemed pretty tall. I just kept focusing and tried to get it into the strike zone.”
The Marauders left three men on base in the first two innings before exploding for four runs in the third to take the lead.
Charlie Goodrich and David Seigne led off the inning with back-to-back hits. Will Smith drove in Goodrich with an RBI double, Seigne and Smith scored on a sacrifice fly by Moises Celaya, Mark Hampers got on base with an error and Kegan Silovich drove him in with an RBI double.
Hunter Marsh answered for Lebanon with an RBI single in the fourth to drive in Perkins from third, but the Raiders didn’t score again.
The Raiders had no hits and two walks in the final three innings, grounded into a double play in the sixth and were caught stealing second base in the seventh.
“We played solid defense today,” Ashey said. “I think our defense overall was decent. … They swung the bats harder than us.”
Lebanon will host Sanborn on Monday. The Marauders will begin a stretch of eight games in 14 days starting on Friday, when they host Windham.
Lehmann said he likes where his team entering the final stretch, though he admitted it needed to find a little more consistency. Hanover has not had a win streak yet this season.
“I think we need to focus on the good things we did in this game, keep improving on what we can improve,” he said. “As long as we take the momentum that we do have into Friday.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.