Chris Naylor retired the first 12 Cheverus batters he faced – six by strikeout. The Windham High junior right-hander said he wasn’t aware he was working on a perfect game but did know he was feeling good.
“I was more focused on trying to get guys out and keep us in the game, get a win,” said Naylor. “My fastball was feeling really good. At the beginning of the game it was jumping out of my hand.”
Justin Ray’s ground-ball single with one out in the fifth broke up Naylor’s no-hit bid but the Stags did little else. Naylor worked six innings of two-hit, no-walk ball and William Brooks got the save with a 1-2-3 seventh as the Eagles made early offense hold up Friday for a 3-0 Class A South win, which concluded the league’s regular season.
Since both teams knew they would be hosting a preliminary round playoff game on Tuesday, the outcome only determined a slight shift in seeding. Windham (10-6) hopped over the Stags into fifth and will face No. 12 Portland (7-9). Cheverus (9-7) dropped one notch to sixth and will host No. 11 Noble (8-8).
“It’s always important to win games I think. The biggest thing is the mentality,” said Windham first-year coach Cody Dube. “These guys are proud of what they’ve done this season. We started 0-2 so we’ve gone 10-4 since then with good momentum and feeling good about themselves. It’s better than ending on a down note.”
Naylor’s fastball-curveball mix had Cheverus off balance all game and gives the Eagles the type of solid second starter needed for a deep playoff run.
“Naylor could throw both of those pitches for strikes. In this league, that gets most people out,” said Cheverus Coach Mac McKew. “And you can’t really anticipate that next pitch because they mixed their pitches so well.”
Senior Bryce Afthim will get the start on Tuesday against Portland, Dube said.
“We’ve been very happy with all of our pitchers,” Dube said. “It’s been one of those things where they come in and do their job.”
Naylor drove in the first run of Friday’s game with a groundout in the first inning, scoring Caleb McCartney (walk) from third after he’d moved up on singles by Ryan Sargent and Brady Afthim.
Windham tacked on two more in the second against Cheverus starter Sam Clark on two-out RBI singles from McCartney and Sargent.
Windham had only one hit the rest of the game, with Clark working into the fifth and Cheverus ace Jack Mullen recording the final nine outs.
“Jack Mullen, our number one innings guy, we had him on a pitch count,” McKew said. “What we wanted to do was to see how deep Sam could get and then go to Jack. He’s coming back probably on Tuesday, which is only three days rest, but he hadn’t pitched in awhile and we wanted to get him into game action.”
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