FALMOUTH — On a day that was less than perfect, Falmouth left-hander Cam Guarino was nearly perfect.
Pitching in a steady mist, Guarino threw a no-hitter to lead the unbeaten Yachtsmen to an 11-1 baseball win Monday against Cape Elizabeth.
Because of the wet conditions, Guarino, who will play at the University of New Haven next spring, wasn’t able to use his full repertoire. But he threw well enough to limit the Capers to three base runners in the five-inning game, which ended in the bottom of the fifth because of the 10-run mercy rule
“I just focused on throwing strikes,” Guarino said. “Fastball. Fastball. Fastball. I barely threw any change-ups. Just a few curves. My hands were a little cold, so I couldn’t really lob it in.”
Guarino, unaware that he had a no-hitter going until after the game was over, struck out six and walked one. He pitched to the minimum 12 batters during the last four innings.
“It wasn’t raining, but it is tough to pitch in this,” Guarino said. “I guess I managed to do pretty well.”
Falmouth, the top-ranked team in the Class A South Heal point standings, banged out 12 hits off three pitchers to beat the Capers for the second time in eight days. Last Monday, Guarino allowed three hits in a 2-0 win at Cape Elizabeth.
Monday’s contest could be the final regular-season game ever between the two longtime rivals as Falmouth is moving from the Western Maine Conference to the Southwestern Maine Activities Association after this school year.
“It was the last time we played Falmouth before they move to the SMAA and I hoped we would compete better than this,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Andrew Wood said. “I don’t know if it was the rain, but we just didn’t have a good day all the way around.”
Falmouth, which went 16-0 in the regular season last year, improved to 5-0 this spring.
“(Usually you) need a nice warm day to kind of get the bats going,” Falmouth Coach Kevin Winship said. “I thought that today was going to be a tough pitcher’s day, so it was nice to see the bats come to life.”
The Capers (3-2) opened the scoring in the first inning on a walk and a dropped fly ball in deep right. The run was unearned, the first run allowed by Guarino this season.
Falmouth made it 1-1 in the bottom of the first on two hit batsmen, a walk and Griffin Aube’s single.
The Yachtsmen broke the game open in the third when they scored five runs. Will Blum doubled, and Max Fortier, Guarino and Will Bopp singled to drive in runs. Marcus Cady forced in another run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The Yachtsmen added four runs in the fourth when Griffin Aube, Blum and Cady came through with run-producing hits.
“Everybody was hitting today,” said Guarino, who got his second career no-hitter. “It was great to have the bats come around today. We made some (mistakes) on the base paths, but everyone was hitting pretty well.”
Robbie Armitage brought the game to the end when he led off the bottom of the fifth with a homer over the left-field fence.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
