DOVER, N.H. — The Upper Valley Anglers U19s dropped their first game of the New Hampshire COVID Baseball League season on Sunday in a 3-2 loss in eight innings to Seacoast Pirates Navy at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
The Pirates erased an early 1-0 deficit, saw a 2-1 lead disappear and were fortunate not to fall in regulation play. The Anglers (3-1) knotted the contest in the top of the seventh inning but left two runners in scoring position.
A two-out walk to Sam Sacerdote helped Upper Valley take the lead in the top of the second. Casey Graham followed with an RBI double to get the Anglers on the board.
Seacoast answered with single runs in the third and fourth frames to reverse the contest. Upper Valley twice left runners stranded in scoring position before Graham reached on an error in the top of the seventh and scored on another Pirate miscue on a ball hit by leadoff batter Ben Williams.
After Nolan Gantrish was hit by a pitch, Trey Parker’s sacrifice fly to right moved both runners up. The Pirates escaped the jam on a Jack Loftus strikeout and took the Anglers out in order in the eighth before using a walk and a pair of hits to plate the winning run.
Upper Valley managed just two hits on the afternoon.
The Anglers return to action on Monday night, closing out a four-game road trip by visiting Laconia at Robbie Mills Park in a 7 p.m. contest.