Danvers baseball walks its way back to North final

The Danvers baseball team had won 19 of its 22 games entering Wednesday?s Division 2 North semifinal game against Concord-Carlisle at Lowell?s Alumni Field. But it hadn?t always been pretty for the Falcons.
Wednesday?s game against the Patriots was not an artistic success for the Falcons but the result was just what they wanted, a 5-4 victory and a return trip to the North final.
The No. 1-seeded Falcons, who are now 20-3, will face either No. 3 Masconomet or No. 10 Beverly on Saturday for the sectional title.
?We hung in there,” said Danvers coach Roger Day said. “We didn?t play well but were able to gut it out and find a way to win.”
The Falcons had to play catch-up right from the start, trailing 2-0 in the top of the first. But rallied to hold a 3-2 lead entering the top of the seventh with ace Andrew Olszak on in relief.
No. 13 Concord-Carlisle?s Josh Carroll homered to begin the seventh and force extra innings. In the top of the eighth, the Patriots? Spencer Tonies scored on a two-out throwing error to give C-C a 4-3 lead.
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Olszak singled sharply and then stole second and third.
Matt Andreas? hard chopper up the middle was bobbled, allowing Olszak to score the tying run. Andreas then stole second and moved to third on a passed ball.
The Patriots intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases for Devonn Allen, who walked on four straight pitches to score Andreas with the winning run.?We?ve had a lot of close games like this where we?ve found a way to pull it out,” Day said. “The guys kept battling, even when it looked like they had the game.