Winnacunnet 6, Salem 5
- Updated: June 11, 2025
NASHUA – Winnacunnet High School’s improbable run through the Division I tournament continued Wednesday night when the 10th-seeded Warriors extended their season with a 6-5 victory over Salem in the semifinals at Holman Stadium.
Braeden O’Hara’s fourth hit of the game was a one-out single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh that drove in Bryce Pinsonnault with the game-winning run.
“Swung at the first pitch,” O’Hara said. “That’s been helpful for me. A ball on the ground isn’t the best in that situation, but I saw it go by (third base) then it was get to first base and celebrate.”
Winnacunnet (13-10) will face either top-seeded Pinkerton (20-0) or fifth-seeded Exeter (16-5) in Saturday’s championship game. The Astros and Blue Hawks met in Wednesday’s second semifinal.
“We’re young, but I knew our pitching was good enough for us to go on a run if we got into the playoffs,” Winnacunnet coach Aaron Abood said. “All along the goal was to get into the playoffs. These guys just don’t give up. They just keep grinding.”
Salem trailed by a run entering the seventh, but tied the game when Elias Mercedes doubled and then scored on Aaron Masson’s single. Mercedes scored three of Salem’s five runs.
Winnacunnet had runners on first and third with one out in the bottom of the seventh when Salem elected to walk Ethan Roy to load the bases. Then O’Hara came through with the game-winning hit.
“He was swinging the bat well today,” Abood said. “Just super happy for him because a lot of the season was a struggle for him. He stayed positive and good things happened.”
Salem, the 11th seed, completed its season with a 12-11 record.
“Proud of my guys for the way they fought back,” Salem coach Dan Keleher said. “They (the Warriors) were a mirror image of what we’ve been doing. They just had the extra inch that we just couldn’t come up with.
“It was a great run. Like I said, I’m proud of these guys. We’ll be back at it next year.”
Reliever Oscar Fritz earned the win. Fritz took the mound with a runner on second and no one out in the seventh. He stranded two runners in the inning.
Dom Toscano provided Salem with a two-run single that drove in Mercedes and Owen Doherty and gave the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
Winnacunnet cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the first. Mason McDonald scored on a bases-loaded walk to Brantson Larck.
The Warriors took a 3-2 lead on Connor Fowler’s two-run single that drove in Larck and O’Hara in the fourth. Fowler’s hit came with two outs in the inning.
Masson’s RBI single drove in Mercedes and made it a 3-3 game in the fifth. Masson scored on Toscano’s fielder’s choice later in the inning to put the Blue Devils in front 4-3.
Winnacunnet regained the lead in the bottom half of the sixth. Larck scored on a throwing error before Fritz, Winnacunnet’s No. 9 hitter, came up with an RBI single that drove in O’Hara and gave the Warriors a 5-4 lead.
“Especially in the playoffs when it’s one and done if you have your best game and the other team doesn’t play as well anything can happen.” O’Hara said. “You have to have confidence, even if it’s blind confidence. You gotta believe first.”
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