Northeast, Beverly baseball teams both bow in North finals

LOWELL – Both Northeast Regional and Beverly High School lost their North sectional final games Saturday at LeLacheur.The Golden Knights, with Saugus’ Jason Harper on the mound, fell in the Division 4 game, 5-2, to Georgetown. The victory was the Royals’ third straight D4 North crown.The Panthers fell in Division 2, 3-2, to Burlington.Harper, who is bound for Franklin Pierce College in the fall, had thrown two no-hitters this spring. But he struggled Saturday, walking eight batters and hitting two more. He only gave up five hits, but with the walks and hit batsmen, it seemed as if the Royals had runners on base all game long.”He struggled with his control,” said Northeast coach Steve Montello, “and (we) got ourselves into a hole. Hats off to Georgetown. They played well.”The Royals built up a 3-0 lead, with single runs in the first three innings. Northeast cut the margin to 3-1 when Joe Tallent’s grounder was booted, allowing Pat Sullivan to score.But Georgetown got that run back, plus another, to make it 5-1.Although Harper settled down somewhat, he still had to pitch out of several jams in order for Northeast to stay in the game, including a bases-loaded, no-out pickle in the seventh that he escaped.Burlington 3, Beverly 2The Panthers grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning when their first and third batters – Harry Brown and Alex Toomey – were hit by pitches. Both came around to score on Brandon Sungy’s base hit.After that, however, Burlington pitcher Peter Dawe settled down. And Beverly’s Dave Wilbur bemoaned missed opportunities afterward.”I felt we had him on the ropes a couple of times,” Wilbur said. “We may have been too anxious. But you can’t say much. They’re up there trying to hit the ball.”We had opportunities,” he said. “We had bases loaded and couldn’t score, and we didn’t execute a bunt. But our players came a long way this year.”Beverly maintained its lead until the top of the fifth, when the Red Devils scored three runs, two of them coming on Chris Sharpe’s single and one when Dawe helped his cause with a single.Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].