MANCHESTER - The American Legion Baseball senior tournament champion will be decided Tuesday night at Gill Stadium. One of the teams playing tonight was expected to get this far. The other was not.
Merrimack Post 98 will be a decided underdog when it matches up with Rochester Post 7 at Gill (4:30 p.m.).
Rochester (3-0) is the top-seeded team from District B, and Merrimack is the No.4 seed from District A.
In addition, not only has Rochester won the last three state titles, but Merrimack will have to defeat Rochester twice to win the championship.
Merrimack (4-1) reached the championship by beating Lebanon, 14-5, Monday night at Gill. Post 98 trailed 4-0 after one inning, but took the lead for good with a four-run fourth.
Earlier Monday, Merrimack nipped Concord 3-2 to extend its stay in the tournament.
Post 98 lost to both Concord and Lebanon earlier in the tournament.
"I'm not," Merrimack coach Mike Henzley said when he was asked if he's surprised his team is still playing. "We have some momentum right now. I thought we only had to play one today, but we were ready by the time we came to the stadium to play two. (Hopefully) two more tomorrow against a very good Rochester team."
Merrimack trailed 4-1 entering the fourth, but received a two-run single from Alex Thorton to take a 5-4 lead. Earlier in the inning, third baseman Cody Pfeifer's two-run double pulled Merrimack within a run.
Merrimack second baseman Justin Grassini had four hits, drove in two runs and scored twice in the victory.
Left fielder Eric Stack collected three hits for Merrimack, which received two hits from both Thorton and Nicholas Dutton.
Thorton and Stack each drove in three.
Dutton held Lebanon to one run in four innings of relief. He also pitched the final inning in Monday's 3-2 victory against Concord.
"I didn't expect to get on the mound at all this season," Dutton said. "I haven't thrown more than 30 pitches (in a game) since last year. Everyone else has done so great this year 1didn't have to get on the mound until today.
"I'm not surprised (Merrimack is playing for the championship) at all. Everyone is meshing together and doing their job. At the beginning of the season we thought we could win it all. This is the best team we've had at Merrimack in a while. I knew we had a chance."
After it took a 5-4 lead in the fourth, Merrimack scored twice in the fifth, once in the sixth and six times in the seventh.
A two-run double from catcher Andrew Hadlock highlighted Lebanon's four-run first inning.
Lebanon's Justin Smith and Keegan Silovich each collected two base hits in the loss.