Lowe, Miller team up, lead Lincoln-Sudbury
LOWELL -- Derek Lowe and Matt Miller performed a masterful, rotating duet on the mound for Lincoln-Sudbury, leading the Warriors to a 3-1 win over Peabody yesterday in the Division 1 North final at LeLacheur Park.
Lowe was relieved by Miller after 5 2/3 innings, the score knotted at 1. The righthanded Lowe moved to right field, and the lefthanded Miller threw six pitches to close out the sixth inning. Lowe came back to the mound to start the seventh and pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings. With two outs in the ninth, Miller came on again and got the final out for the save.
"[Lowe] did all the hard work," said Miller, who picked up his second save of the year.
Miller threw just 10 pitches, the last a curveball on a 1-2 count that fooled Peabody's Kevin Skop, who couldn't check his swing.
Lowe, a sophomore, threw 115 pitches, and officially pitched 8 1/3 innings. He gave up seven hits, three walks, and struck out two. Lowe, who started only two games in the regular season, has been a revelation for coach Kirk Fredericks.
As has Miller, who picked up his second save of the postseason and helped his cause by going 1 for 4 with a pair of RBIs.
"We rolled the dice," said Fredericks, who had rotated Lowe and Miller in a game this season.
Peabody starter Kyle Multner was perfect for 4 1/3 innings. In the fifth, he gave up a walk to Mike Wilson, who stole second and advanced to third on Kevin Scanlan's single. Wilson scored on a botched pickoff attempt when Multner threw the ball past first baseman James Noftle.
Multner escaped further damage by striking out Justin Quinn looking and getting Drew Mullaney to line to short.
Peabody (19-3) evened the score the next inning. Matt Sucharewicz (3 for 4, RBI) hit a 3-2 fastball to right center, scoring Josh Band, who had reached on a single. The hit knocked Lowe out of the game, at least for six pitches.
Multner escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, striking out Wilson swinging on a shoulder-high, 85 mile-an-hour fastball -- his fastest pitch of the night up to that point.
He couldn't escape another bases-loaded jam in the seventh, though.
He hung a knuckleball that was smacked by Miller to left field, scoring Quinn and Mullaney to make it a 3-1. It was Multner's last pitch; he struck out seven, and allowed five hits in 6 1/3 innings, throwing 123 pitches.
Lincoln-Sudbury moves on to play BC High tomorrow night at Braintree High. BC High beat Walpole, 4-2, in 11 innings.
