Frank Carey ends coaching career with a tough loss

LOWELL – The man who has probably seen everything in his 49 years of coaching rode off into the sunset Tuesday after witnessing one final bit of the bizarre.Unfortunately for Frank Carey, it did not go in his favor. The legendary North Reading baseball coach saw his Hornets lose a 2-1 Division 3 state semifinal game to Bellingham on a balk with a runner on third in the bottom of the eighth inning.The loss ends a brilliant coaching career that saw Carey win 736 games at North Reading. Carey played his baseball at St. Mary’s in Lynn, with, among other players, late Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro, Lynn School Committee secretary Tom Iarrobino and Tony Nicosia, owner of Tony’s Place on Franklin Street.After leaving the University of Rhode Island, Carey got a teaching job at North Reading – and stayed there until his retirementTuesday’s game was a scintillating mound duel between Scott Allen of the Hornets and David Samson of Bellingham, who gave up 11 hits between them seven innings. But in the top of the eighth, North Reading threatened, loading the bases with none out. But Samson got out of the jam. His first baseman making a fine catch on a line drive for the first out, and a runner was picked off third for the second out.In the bottom of the inning, Michael Ryan hit a first-pitch double, and pinch runner Jared Aberenathy was sacrificed to third by Sean Postler.Kyle Goulet, who had gone 0-for-3, tried to squeeze Abernathy home, but the bunt went foul. The balk occurred on the next pitch, and Abernathy scored the winning run.”It’s a tough way to lose,” said Carey. “You hate to see a game end like that. We played a very good game. Bellingham’s the best team we’ve played this year. We had to play a perfect game to beat them, and we almost did.”Carey also said that Allen, who pitched the entire game and committed the balk, “has been the backbone of our team all year. Every time we needed a win, he was the one who got it for us. He kept us in every game.”Every kid on this team realizes that if it wasn’t for the kid on the mound, we’d have never been here.”A win would have put the Hornets in the state final for the second time in three years. The Hornets won it all in 2012.