Entering last Saturday’s game with Scarborough, the Windham baseball team had dropped three straight games. The streak ended in a big way as Eagles pitcher Dan Williams shut down the Red Storm throwing just 74 pitches in six innings and allowing only four hits in a 10-0 win.
“That was a big win,” said Windham coach Mike Fullerton. “We’ve been kind of struggling lately. We dropped our last three games, so it’s good to get back on track. We’re hitting again too. We started off the year hot and we got going again today and put some runs on the board.”
The Eagles came right out of the gate swinging in the bottom of the first. Arthur Winship worked a leadoff walk to get things started. Zach Cantor then hit the first of his three singles. Sundquist doubled to score Winship making it 1-0. After two straight outs, it appeared Scarborough would escape with minimal damage. But Williams reached on an error scoring Cantor and Sundquist. Windham led 3-0 after one and they continued to add to their lead while keeping Scarborough off the board.
In the second, Williams retired the Red Storm on three straight ground balls to the left side. Through the first seven batters of the game, Williams allowed a leadoff walk and retired six in a row. He would go on to retire eight straight before allowing his first hit in the third inning.
“It’s good to come out at home with your number one pitcher,” said Fullerton. “His pitch count was at 74 for the game, which is very impressive. He was getting ahead of batters. A lot of that was how we played in the field. No errors help limit the number of pitches he has to throw.”
The Eagles added a run in the second when Sam Marvonek led off the inning with a triple. Winship drove him in with a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield and a 4-0 Windham advantage.
Windham added another run in the third. Sundquist doubled for the second time in as many at bats and Nick DeRice drove in Sundquist with a single.
“They hit well all day,” said Scarborough coach Jim Cronin. “We used a freshman there. It was his first varsity experience and we asked him to get out there in a game that was still in reach in his first (varsity) time on the field. I was pretty impressed with what he did today.”
The Storm couldn’t string together any hits and that set the Eagles up to win it in the bottom of the sixth via the 10-run rule.
Winship led off and was hit by a pitch. Cantor singled for the third time and Sundquist walked to load the bases. Nate Johnson ripped a shot to deep center that cleared the wall on a hop for a ground rule double. The double scored Winship and Cantor and gave Windham a 9-0 lead. With DeRice at the plate, a wild pitch sailed to the backstop and Sundquist trotted home with the winning run.
The loss drops Scarborough to 2-8 on the season. They were scheduled to play Kennebunk on Tuesday.
“It was a tough loss for us,” Cronin said. “We put the ball in play but we hit it right at someone and we never got any momentum going. We need to string something together or we’ll be sitting down in June. We need to stay positive and do the little things right. The wins will come our way.”
Josh Sundquist provided plenty of pop with his bat collecting two doubles and two RBIs for the Eagles. He also walked twice and scored three runs.
Windham improved to 6-4 with the win. They were scheduled to face Bonny Eagle on Tuesday. Now that their losing streak is over, the Eagles are concentrating on a playoff berth.
“Our goal going into the rest of the season is to put ourselves in position for a home game in the playoffs,” Fullerton said. “We pretty much know we’ll get in but we want to position ourselves to be successful when we get there.”
Gray-NG 3 Cape Elizabeth 1
It was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel on Monday at Cape Elizabeth. Visiting Gray-New Gloucester hurler Peter Clement and Cape’s Pat Murphy hooked up in an extra inning contest that went in favor of the Patriots. Gray-NG plated two runners in the top half of the eighth to secure a 3-1 Western Maine Conference win.
Murphy battled and battled the Patriots’ hitters for seven innings, but they touched him up for a pair of runs in the first extra frame. He only allowed six hits in his full day of work.
Clement held the Capers to just two hits and the single run they scored in the bottom of the second to knot the score at 1-1.
Cape was scheduled to host Greely on Wednesday, May 16.
Riots stopped by Stags
South Portland dropped a 9-3 decision to Cheverus last Saturday. The Riots held a brief 2-0 lead before the Stags scored six runs in the middle innings to pull away.
Senior first baseman Tyler Kelly had two hits for the Riots and starting pitcher Coleman Findlay drops to 2-2 on the season.
South Portland was scheduled to play at Marshwood on Tuesday and at Gorham this afternoon.
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