BY MATT STOUT

In these early stages of the spring, most coaches say it’ll take a few weeks, a month, even the entire regular season to discover the true potential of their team.

Ben Forbes gave it about a day.

Behind two RBI from senior Eric Fortin and a combined effort on the mound from Jimmy Fellows and Jimmy Richards, the Bow High baseball team earned its second win of the year on Monday, April 30, edging a much-improved Merrimack Valley team, 2-1.

With several key players out for various reasons, the Falcons, now at 2-2, struggled through two of their first three games. Gone for a game was leadoff hitter Danny Achorn on vacation. Fellows was on a college visit. Fortin was absent for two games on holiday, while sophomore Tanner Keefe, on vacation in California, also missed a pair.

So when the Falcons took to the field against the Pride with all 15 varsity players dressing for the first time this spring, Forbes, the team’s coach, had a feeling he’d see the real Bow team that many expect will contend for a Class I crown.

And he did.

Fellows, who took a no-decision, struck out four batters in as many innings, and Richards yielded one hit in three dominant innings of relief to earn the win.

Meanwhile, Fortin, the team’s lone senior, didn’t waste his chances, singling home Joey Pelton in the first before breaking a 1-1 tie in the fifth with an RBI bunt single that scored Achorn for the game-winner.

“This is our first game,” said Forbes, whose team managed six hits on Merrimack Valley ace Chris Costonguay. “It was our first game where we’re all here ready to go. And the team you saw on the field was our team.”

That wasn’t the case in losses to Laconia, a 6-5 decision on April 26, and Souhegan, an 8-2 score on Saturday, April 28. In those games, Bow’s lineup produced a combined eight hits, committed four errors and ceded 14 runs after giving up just one in a season-opening win over John Stark.

Forbes said he wasn’t necessarily surprised by the results, considering in one game he was forced to bring up a freshman in Josh Andrew to start at shortstop. Andrew played well, committing no errors. But it certainly wasn’t the roster the Falcons intended to roll out at the beginning of the season.

Now, with everyone feeling relatively healthy – Andrew Knights is winning his battle with biceps tendonitis and has already pitched twice – Bow is ready to, as Forbes put it, “just go.”

“The first couple of games, it was hard to build team chemistry because all our starters weren’t there, and it was unfamiliar because we were playing with different lineups every game,” said Fortin, who missed the Laconia game in which Bow left the bases loaded in the seventh and stranded 11 runners on the day. “So today, it was good because the whole team stuck together, and it showed up on the scoreboard.”

Bow, enjoying its first homestand, was scheduled to host Milford on Wednesday, May 2, before welcoming Fall Mountain to town on Friday, May 4.

Notes

Achorn, who homered against Laconia and added two hits at Souhegan, tripled, singled and stole a base on Monday in addition to scoring the winning run. Ian Hanson and Brian Raffio also added singles against Costonguay, who struck out seven Falcons in a complete-game effort thanks in large part to a highly effective curveball.

Richards struck out three, and Bow, which stayed aggressive on the base paths, stole three bases on the afternoon.