Northfield's Brandon Pedley lays down a perfect bunt for a base hit in last Friday's Div.III game against Bellows Falls att Memorial Park. The Marauders dropped the Terriers 15-3 to move on to the state Div III semi-finals. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News Northfield’s 15-1, Div III top seeded, baseball Marauders took one step closer to the state championship game last Friday at Memorial Park. The Boys of the Maroon & White rolled over #9 seed Bellows Falls by a 15-3 score and set up this weeks Semi Final game against #4 Leland & Gray at Memorial Park. ( NOTE: The semi final game was played after this issue of the Northfield News went to press. We will have a complete report in next week’s issue.) Friday’s game didn’t get off to an auspicious start for the Marauders.

Bellows Falls threatened with runners on first and third with nobody out But Marauder Pitcher Adam Daley got the Maroon & White out of the jam. He picked one Terrier off third base and then, with the help of catcher Brandon Pedley. Pulled off a “strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play to end the threat. It was not to be the last time that Adam Daley would be in trouble on the afternoon. He had trouble finding the strike zone most of the afternoon but rared back and got strikes when he really had to have them. In fairness to Adam he wasn’t missing by much and the feeling from the home crowd at Memorial park was that the umpire “was squeezing the strike zone”. Northfield coach Frank Pecora only had admiration for Daley’s effort. “ This was his gutsiest performance ever,” said coach Pecora. “Adam didn’t have his best stuff but he was a warrior out there. He battled and battled. He went out there and competed. What an effort,” the coach said.

While Adam Daley was struggling on the mound he got a lot of help from two sources. The Northfield Power and Lumber Company pounded out 12 hots and the Bellows Falls defense did as much for the Northfield attack as the Marauder Bats. At times it seemed as if the Terrier defense never got off the bus. Bellows falls made eight errors in the ball game and really helped out the Northfield cause.

The Marauders broke the scoring ice with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first with some help from a hit batsman, two terrier throwing errors and a single by Bill Whaley and it looked like the marauders were on their way.

Bellows falls countered with a run in the second to close to 2-1 but that was as close as the Terriers would get all afternoon.

Northfield struck again with fourruns in the bottom of the second again helped out by Bellows Falls errors, a pair of singles by Zach Daley& Blane Pedley, a bases loaded walk to Eli Diebold and a Billy Whaley sacrifice fly to give Northfield a 6-1 lead.

The Terriers got two back in the top of the third to close to 6- 3 and the good size crowd of Northfield faithful were buzzing and wondering if the Marauders would let Bellows falls back into it. Those fears were put to rest in the bottom of the third. The Northfield Power and Lumber Company tallied three more runs keyed By Sam Dyer’s sixth home run of the year, a nearly 400 foot blast to straightaway center that scored the two runners that were on base as well as Sam. A very interesting point is that Sam elected to come into home plate standing up instead of sliding. That made for a Very close and a very interesting play at the plate. Sam was safe by an eyelash. The Terrier catcher applied the tag about a micro second after Sam’s foot was on the plate. That three run inning put the Marauders up by a 9-3 count and they never looked back. They would score four more in the fourth and add two in the fifth to cement the victory.

Adam Daley went five innings and got relief help from Sam Dyer in the sixth and Billy Whaley in the seventh to record the Marauders 16th win of the year.

With the 15-3 win in the quarterfinals over Bellows Falls the next Marauder stop is a home game semifinal against Leland & Gray.

Northfield would like nothing better than to get even with the team that defeated them 2-1 in last year’s state championship game.