STANDISH – Bonny Eagle beat the Kennebunk Rams 6-2 Tuesday afternoon behind the trio of pitchers Matt Burnell, Patrick McDonough and Thomas Hazelton. The No. 8 Scots now advance to the Class A West quarterfinals, setting up a matchup Thursday with the top-ranked Marshwood Hawks.
Burnell got the start and went four innings for the win, giving up two runs before being pulled for McDonough, who took over in the bottom of the fifth. McDonough retired all three batters he faced in his lone inning of work before turning it over to their ace Hazelton. Hazelton pitched two perfect innings to bring the Kennebunk’s season to an end and secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
Using three pitchers in the playoff win was a hard decision for Bonny Eagle coach Marc Sawyer.
“It’s hard, you don’t always know what to do,” said Sawyer. “Regardless of who won, the winner was going to have to face the No. 1 team, so you have to keep that in mind that it is a tournament, not just one game.”
After the two teams traded runs in the first, the Scots fell behind 2-1 in the third. Kennebunk’s Rob Ecklund reached on an infield single before advancing to second on a balk by Burnell. Two batters later, Nick Emmons roped an RBI double to the left center field gap.
Despite looking off balance at the plate through the first four innings against Ram’s lefty starter Brandon Guevin, the Scots utilized a pair of throwing errors in the top of the fifth to their advantage.
Greg Hussey led off the fifth by reaching on an errant throw from short and advancing to second after the ball went out of play. Travis Rogers followed with a sacrifice bunt before Devin Butler crushed an RBI double to left center.
Butler would come around to score after trying to advance to third on a ball in the dirt. The throw down to third looked as if it would have been in time but sailed into left field to allow the eventual winning run to score.
The Scots would add three more insurance runs in the top of the sixth. Hazelton walked to start the top of the inning before Andrew Martel ripped a double to the wall in center to force Guevin from the game. After Hussey was hit by Hank Lapham to load the bases, Rogers laced a two-run single up the middle.
Lampham would only face three batters before leaving the bases loaded for fellow reliever Jake Bear. Burnell would greet Bear with a bases-loaded single to score Rogers. Butler would be thrown out at the plate to retire the side.
McDonough and Hazelton did the rest of the work for the Scots as they combined for three strikeouts and no walks.
For Hazelton, Tuesday’s outing served as preparation for his biggest outing of the year against Marshwood, as he will likely oppose Gatorade Player of the Year Luke Fernandes.
“Tom is certainly a kid that can go out and compete every day,” said Sawyer. “We’re just going to go down there, give it a whirl and see what happens.”
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