'Just pure bliss': Algonquin's Clark comes up clutch in wild extra-inning win over Grafton

NORTHBOROUGH — Tighe Clark had a hunch heading into his final at-bat Saturday.

And it didn’t take long for the Algonquin Regional senior to bring his intuition to life.

With his baseball team tied at 4 in the Division 2 round of 32 with Grafton, the 18-year-old from Northborough roped the first pitch he saw to left field in the bottom of the 11th inning to score teammate Nick Klein and secure a wild, 5-4 win for the Titans.

Clark’s game-sealing single set off a team-wide celebration on the field as No. 8 Algonquin moves on to face ninth-seeded Westwood in the round of 16 back in Northborough at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“I knew that no way the game wasn’t ending right there,” Clark, a captain, said. “I went straight to celebration. I didn’t leave the batter’s box without celebrating. I was just so excited.”

Grafton, the No. 25 seed in Division 2, finishes its season 12-9.

“Hats off to Algonquin,” Grafton coach Brian Anderson said. “What a great baseball game. Both teams should have won that game today (and) we just ended up on the wrong side of it.”

Grafton's Kiesiner picks up his 100th career strikeout

Before any pitches were thrown Saturday, Chris Kiesiner, the Grafton starting pitcher, took two scoops of a snow-cone flavored pre-workout supplement in the dugout.

Just to get the juices going.

“Everything was moving just how I wanted it to,” said Kiesiner, a junior.

The talented right-handed pitcher wasn’t kidding.

Kiesiner (6 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs, 7 strikeouts) matched Algonquin left-handed ace Jackson Redfern (5⅔ innings, 7 hits, 3 runs, 6 strikeouts) pitch for pitch through the first five frames. Then, in the sixth, Kiesiner collected his seventh and final strikeout — which happened to be the 100th of his high school career — before inducing a flyout with the bases loaded to keep the game tied at 3-3.

So, did he need a third scoop of pre-workout powder to keep him going?

“Two was enough,” Kiesiner said.

As it turns out, seven innings weren’t enough to finish Saturday’s baseball game.

Tighe Clark comes up clutch for the Titans

After neither team scored a run in the seventh, or the first two frames of extra innings, Grafton finally pushed a runner across home plate in the top of the 10th.

Following a Finn Gilmore walk, Jake Mayerhauser bunt hit, Kiesiner sacrifice bunt and AJ Parlante hit by pitch, Grafton sophomore Charlie Law (1 for 3, 2 RBIs) lofted a sacrifice fly to left field to deliver Gilmore from third and put the Gators ahead by one run.

“There were a lot of ups and downs in the game,” Algonquin’s Klein said. “We had some doubts, and we had some hope.”

Down to their last out and strike in the bottom half, the Titans’ last chance came in the form of Brennan Rice. The speedy Algonquin senior reached first base on an infield single before taking second base on a pitch in the dirt.

Then with teammate Thomas Boudreau bouncing a dribbler just past the pitcher’s mound that handcuffed the Grafton shortstop, Rice raced around third base and slid into home safely to tie the game at 4-4.

“I just looked for the extra base and got it,” Rice said. “We were down, we didn’t know how we were going to get it done, we’ve been in that situation before in the season, down to our last out, and we battled back before, and we just did it again.”

With Grafton failing to score in the top of the 11th, Klein opened the bottom half with a walk prior to a sacrifice bunt from Redfern. With the Gators electing to intentionally walk Algonquin senior captain Zachary Meehl, a first-team Mid-Wach A All-Star, Clark (3 for 5) came to the plate with a chance to win the game for the Titans.

And he didn’t disappoint.

With his winning single plating Klein, Clark ran past first base in jubilation before his teammates tried to tackle him in the outfield grass.

“We all had full confidence in Tighe,” Klein said. “We all love him like a brother, we know he’s getting that hit when it comes down to it.”

A few minutes after his big hit, Clark was doused with a celebratory bath from the water cooler. Even he couldn’t forecast that one.

“I did not think this was going to happen,” Clark confirmed. “You can’t really predict a game like this, and now I’m just really cold. I can’t describe how happy I am right now. It’s just pure bliss, it really is.

“Dogpile and drenched in ice cold water.”

'The Fist Bump Kid': Liam Fitzgerald invited to greet Bruins for Winter Classic at Fenway

As for the rest of the Titans, they breathed a collective sigh of relief Saturday.

Now, they get to play at least one more game and repeat a rallying cry they’ve sung all season long.

“Why not us?” Redfern said.

Call it a hunch like Clark’s. Or maybe a program premonition.

Either way, Algonquin (9-10) is moving on in the playoffs.

“They refuse to lose,” Algonquin first-year coach Ken MacDonald said. “Just really confident in the guys here and just excited we get another day of baseball.”

“Onto the next one,” Klein said.

—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Algonquin beats Grafton in extra innings in Division 2 playoff game