OLD ORCHARD BEACH — For a championship game, it was everything you could ask for and a whole lot more.
In a game that featured 35 hits, seven errors and more drama than a TNT series, third-seed Ramsdell-Rogers of York-Wells knocked off top-seed Fayette-Staples of Saco 13-12 in the Legion Zone 5 championship game at The Ballpark Wednesday night. It was the first Zone 5 championship in the York-Wells program’s six-year history, and it couldn’t have come in a more dramatic form.
Down to its last out and trailing 12-10 in the ninth, Ramsdell’s Tanner Chase ripped a triple to deep right field to drive in Josh Ingalls and Ben Lawlor for the tying runs. Paul McDonough followed with a single, plating Chase and giving York-Wells (14-6) its first lead since the first inning.
“(He’s) been that kind of kid all year, our leader,” York-Wells head coach Chuck Chadbourne said of Chase, the oldest player on an otherwise young team. “Doesn’t say much but just does the little things in the dugout and he gets the big stand-up triple.”
Saco (17-3) looked primed to break York-Wells’ heart in the ninth, but Brandon Pridham got Alex Newton to line-out to second base with runners on first and third to end the game.
On a night filled with heroics on both sides, Pridham was Superman for a York-Wells team that fell down 8-1 after two, using a deceptive curveball-changeup combination to hurl the last 7 2/3 innings of the game after Saco had jumped early all over starter Aaron Baily.
“I think we were a little complacent,” Saco head coach Ray Petit said. “We get in these situations where we get ahead and then we go to sleep.”
Perhaps most remarkable, Chadbourne said he’d planned for Pridham to pitch only a few innings.
“We wanted three innings, but then he had a couple eight, nine, 10 pitch innings and we started to see him pounding the zone and getting some ground balls,” Chadbourne said. “He just kept pounding the zone and giving us a chance.”
As Pridham worked to settle down Saco’s bats, York-Wells got its own bats going in the third to get it back to 8-5. As it had been all season and continued to be all night, Saco’s defense was again its Achilles heal in the inning, as an error on pitcher Keegan Sullivan on a play that could have ended the inning, instead prolonged it and injected a shot of life into York-Wells.
“When we got to 8-5 we started to see the mood in the dugout shift,” Chadbourne said. “We’ve been able to score runs all year.”
After getting another run, again thanks to an error in the fifth, York-Wells took a 10-9 lead in the top of the seventh thanks to five hits and yet another Fayette-Staples error.
Saco battled back with three of its own runs in the bottom half, taking advantage of a wicked bounce that went over McDonough’s head at shortstop on a ball that would have ended the inning.
“It was just a bad break,” McDonough said of the play, which scored a run and was followed by a Newton double that plated Saco’s last two runs. “Nothing I could do.”
After a scoreless eighth, defense was again the culprit in the ninth as Saco again let a lead slip away as a throwing error on Jeff Gelinas put runners on second and third. That’s when Chase and McDonough did the damage.
“I was having a rough day and I just went up there with a positive attitude,” said McDonough, who was 0-4 with three strikeouts heading into the at bat. “I just looked for a pitch I could hit and I drove it into right field.”
Saco committed six errors on the night, including three on Gelinas alone, leading to seven unearned runs for York-Wells.
“It was a problem in the high school season, it’s been a problem here,” Petit said of his team’s sloppy play defensively. “We’re athletic enough to do it we’re just not executing. I don’t know if it’s a lack of confidence or what but we’ve got to sure it up defensively because we can hit with anybody.”
Even with the heartbreaking loss, Fayette-Staples’ summer is not over by a long shot. It will face Saco-Biddeford Savings of Westbrook at Augusta McGuire Field in a play-in game Saturday, with the winner advancing to the state tournament. Even if Fayette loses that game, they’ll still play in the Northeast Regional tournament at The Ballpark as the host team.
As for now, Petit said trying to clean up the team’s defensive woes will be his focus during the next couple of days.
“We’re going to field a bunch of ground balls before Saturday, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “If we want to do well in these tournaments we’ve got to play defense.”
On the flip side, York-Wells advances into next week’s state tournament, its first ever, with momentum on its side.
“We’ve had some good runs (in Zone Five) but never been able to get over the top,” Chadbourne said. “This is all new to me, I have no idea what to expect.”
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