Bonny Eagle 6
Massabesic 4
On Saturday, the Bonny Eagle Scots had to survive a late comeback attempt by Massabesic to escape with a 6-4 win.
Massabesic scored three runs in the top of the seventh, but Bonny Eagle held on to earn their eighth win of the year. Tim Grovo delivered the big hit for the Scots with a two-run double in the fifth. Kevin Moskevich was strong on the hill to earn his third win of the year.
Entering the seventh, Bonny Eagle led 6-1. Mike Guay led off and reached on a throwing error. Jordan Knight then reached on another error. Pat McCarthy drove in Guay with a ground out to short. Tim Benton followed that with a single. Donny Morse then reached on an error that allowed another run to score.
Bonny Eagle coach Marc Sawyer brought Grovo in to pitch and close out the game. Mikhail Missick earned a one-out walk. Andrew Cessario drove in the third Mustang run of the inning with a bases loaded walk. The game finally ended with Wes Labbe grounding into a double play.
“Every game in the league is a battle,” said Sawyer. “You can’t take any teams lightly and they are certainly a good ball club. Their record doesn’t indicate how good they are. They battled us to the last out.”
Earlier in the game, the Scots built a lead that allowed them to survive the late flurry by Massabesic. In the bottom of the second the Scots scored the first two runs of the game. Casey McKague led off with a single and Joe Davis followed that with a walk. Travis Dunn singled to score McKague and move Davis to third. With Grovo at the plate, Davis scored on a wild pitch to give Bonny Eagle a 2-0 lead.
The Scots added another run in the third on a wild play. Ryan Nason was at first after reaching on an error. With Ricky Hoyt at the plate, Nason took off for second. Hoyt swung at the pitch for strike three but the ball was dropped. Hoyt took off for first and the throw from Cessario was off-target. That allowed Nason to come all the way around to score.
“We have been hot and cold (at the plate),” Sawyer said. “We had five hits, 19 hits and three hits. We are stating to put the ball in play a bit more.”
The Mustangs got their first run in the fifth when McCarthy tripled to score Knight.
In the bottom half of the fifth, the Scots broke it open. Luke Boucher walked to lead off the inning and Joe Marro walked to give the Scots another baserunner. Hoyt also walked to load the bases. McKague singled to score a run and the Scots lead was 4-1. Two batters later, Grovo doubled to score a pair of runs and give Bonny Eagle the 6-1 lead that allowed them to hold on for the win.
Despite not being able to finish the game, Moskevich pitched well for the Scots and earned his third win in five starts. He struck out five and allowed six hits.
“Kevin’s pitched great for us all year,” said Sawyer. “The tough part with him is we seem to have one bad inning for him. In past games it has been earlier in the game and we had to battle back. He is going out and doing what he is supposed to do, keeping us in ball games. I would have liked for him to have the complete game, but we didn’t make a few plays in the seventh and I needed to give them a different look.”
The Scots improved to 8-6 on the year and are looking toward a playoff berth for the first time in several seasons.
“I think with this win we’ll get a playoff spot for the first time in a while,” said Sawyer. “But ultimately, consistency is what we need to focus on going forward. We need to be consistent in the field and have consistent at bats. And I think if we can do that we’ll surprise some people.”
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