Hanson Powers #15 South Burlington To 10-7 Upset of #2 Essex

South Burlington senior Ethan Hanson helped the #15 seed Rebels to a 10-7 upset win at #2 seed Essex

South Burlington senior Ethan Hanson pitched a complete game and added a three-run home run to help the #15 seeded Rebels upset #2 seed Essex today 10-7 in a Division I high school baseball playdown.

Essex came in as the defending Division I baseball champion but South Burlington wasn’t intimidated. Even though they had a 4-9 record during the regular season, many of those losses were close and the Rebels didn’t feel defeated.

“Coach [Goyette] did a great job keeping us focused on the task at hand,” said Hanson. “During the season we felt competitive against the top teams in the state and it’s the playoffs so anything can happen.”

SBHS lost to Colchester by two runs, MMU by two runs, CVU by one run, Rice by one run and by two runs vs. Essex earlier in the season.

South Burlington (5-9) grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the second inning when Andrew Tang drove in Matt Baechle on a sacrifice fly. Essex answered back in the bottom of the second when Lee Barnett’s double drove in Teddy Andrews to tie the game 1-1.

In the third inning, the Rebels’ first four batters reached base and all eventually came around to score and give SB a 5-1 lead. Fist, PJ Handy doubled to drive in pinch-runner Will Coles and give South Burlington the lead back at 2-1. After a Tyler Lord single, Hanson was up and hit a towering home run to left field to drive in three runs.

“During at bats, I always look for a pitch in my zone. I waited and there was a fastball right there so I hit it out of the yard,” said Hanson.

Essex grabbed a run in the third inning and three more in the fourth to tie the game 5-5. The Hornets’ first three batters reached base in the fourth inning. Andrews walked and Barnett doubled which led to Steve Jurkiewicz’s two-RBI triple. Jurkiewicz would score on a Kevin Guild sac fly.

Lord and Sean Keogh came around to score in the fifth to give the Rebels a 7-5 lead. South Burlington added three more runs in the top of the seventh inning before Essex made it interesting in the final frame. Seniors Bryce Conchiere, Jack Valley, and Ben Ferris all singled to load the bases. Nick Salerno then knocked in Conchieri and Valley on a single to cut the deficit to just three runs. However, Hanson struck out the next batters before getting Jurkiewicz to pop out and complete the upset victory.

“My fastball was a lifesaver. I threw it about 95% of the time today,” said Hanson. “I had a pretty good game against Essex earlier in the year so my mindset going into to this one was to keep pounding the strike zone. I struggle a bit at the end but my fastball hit the right spots when it counted.”

Jurkiewicz started for Essex and lasted three innings before giving way to Guild.

South Burlington travels to #7 seed Mt. Anthony on Friday. Essex finishes their season 13-4 under first year head coach Chris Richard.

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