DANVERS — One way to measure a team's character is by the way they bounce back from a loss.
After a 12-1 loss on Saturday at the hands of Bishop Fenwick in the first round of the Woodman Tournament, the Gloucester High School baseball team was looking to show that they had a lot of character when they faced off against Hamilton-Wenham yesterday.
Sure enough, the Fishermen showed that they are a team of character by defeating the Generals, 8-5, in the consolation game of the Woodman Tournament at Twi Field in Danvers.
"This was a good win and a character builder," said Gloucester head coach Joe Orlando. "I was hoping they would bounce back from (Saturday's) loss like this, and they did."
Gloucester (12-8) broke out to an early lead with three runs in the top of the first inning. Zak Kendall made it 1-0 Gloucester when he singled in Ryan Cusick, who had walked. Brett Cahill made it 3-0 two batters later when he doubled to the gap in left center scoring Kendall and Conor Ressel.
Despite being down the entire game, the Generals (2-16) would not go away, answering Gloucester's runs with runs of their own. They cut the Fishermen lead to 3-2 in the second when Joe Hoyle and Matt Stewart came in to score on a throwing error after singling and walking respectively.
The Fishermen broke the game open with three runs in the top of the sixth. Leading 5-4 heading into the inning, Andrew Fulford gave the Fishermen some insurance when he tripled in Taylor Burbine and Cusick. Fulford would then come in to score one batter later on a Kendall single.
"We put together some timely hits," Orlando said. "Andrew woke us up with a big hit to put the game out of reach."
Ressel led the Fishermen offense with three hits. Kendall added a two-hit game for Gloucester and Cusick scored three runs.
Dylan Maki picked up the win on the mound. Maki relieved starter Kyle Habecker in the third inning and allowed just two runs on one hit and struck out seven in 41/3 innings of work.
"This was a good way to end the regular season," Burbine said. "We started off a little slow but we worked as a team and came out with the win."
Gloucester will now shift its focus to the state tournament. The Fishermen will find out who their opponent will be when the pairings are released tomorrow. This will be Gloucester's fifth straight trip to the postseason, and the fourth in four years under Orlando.
The coach knows his team will have to bring their best.
"We are going to get a tough opponent, probably one of the top four seeds," Orlando said. "But we will work hard in practice this week and we are going to go out and play our hardest like we always do."
Burbine added that the team needs to play together if they want to make a run deep in the tournament.
"We have to go out and play as a team," Burbine said. "That's when we are at our best. We know whoever we get is going to be good and we will probably be facing our opponents ace, so we have to play well and play together."
Gloucester 8, Hamilton-Wenham 5
at Twi Field, Danvers
Gloucester: Ryan Cusick dh 2-3-0; Andrew Fulford 2b 3-1-1; Zack Kendall lf 3-1-2; Conor Ressel 3b/ss 4-2-3; Brett Cahill c 4-0-1; Dylan Maki ss/p 4-0-0; Trevor Curley 1b 1-0-0; Nate Kidder ph 1-0-0; Taylor Burbine cf 3-1-1; Mark Alves rf 3-0-0; Jake Alves ph 1-0-0. Totals 29-8-8.
Hamilton-Wenham: Mike Greeke 2b 4-0-0; Dan Mulley ss 4-1-2; Matt Cook p 3-0-0; John Hassion cf 3-0-1; Dan Curran 1b 3-1-1; Joe Hoyle 3b 2-2-1; Matt Stewart lf 2-1-0; Ryan Hughes rf 3-0-0; Jim Love c 2-0-0. Totals 26-5-5.
Gloucester: 301 103 0 — 8
Hamilton-Wenham: 021 101 0 — 5
RBI: G— Fulford 2, Kendall 2 Cahill 2, Ressel; R— Hassion.
WP: Maki; LP: Cook.
