CUMBERLAND — Falmouth took advantage of nearly every mistake made by Greely on Tuesday to remain unbeaten in baseball.
University of New Haven-bound Cam Guarino outdueled University of Rhode Island-bound Ryan Twitchell to lead the Yachtsmen to a 4-0 win over the Rangers in a Western Maine Conference baseball game.
Guarino, a left-hander, allowed three hits, struck out eight and walked one for his fifth win of the season; Twitchell, a right-hander, gave up six hits, struck out 12 and walked none to fall to 3-1.
“That was a good win for us,” Falmouth Coach Kevin Winship said. “Anytime you face a pitcher of Twitchell’s caliber and beat him, it’s good for the program and for the team.”
Twitchell pitched well enough to win but didn’t get offensive support and the defense made three errors behind him. Three of Falmouth’s runs were unearned.
“We thought if we were going to win this game it was going to have to be grind-it-out, low-scoring and we were going to have to play defense,” Greely Coach Derek Soule said. “We made couple of infield errors, a couple of outfield bobbles and missed opportunity (for an out) on a pickoff.”
The Yachtsmen (10-0) took a 3-0 lead in the third inning with two outs.
Garrett Aube doubled to the base of the fence in right field and scored when Colin Coyne rifled a single through the left side of the infield on the next pitch. Coyne stole second and scored when third baseman Tate Porter let Robbie Armitage’s hard-hit ground ball roll between his legs. Reece Armitage followed with a single to left to drive in his brother.
Falmouth scored an unearned run in the seventh. With one out, Will Blum singled. Pinch-runner Brady Douglas stole second and scored when shortstop Zack Brown was unable to come up with Garrett Aube’s ground ball.
The Rangers fell to 7-2.
“Ryan had enough good stuff today, but obviously we have to score some runs for him and play better defense,” Soule said. “We feel every time Ryan gets the ball we have a chance to win, even against a team like Falmouth.”
Greely had base runners in every inning but the fifth and seventh, but none advanced beyond second base.
“Early on, I was just trying to blow the ball by people, but I wasn’t throwing very hard today. I just didn’t have it,” Guarino said, “so I just relied on defense more. I tried to pick at the corners and throw inside handle stuff. They started rolling over on the ball and hitting ground balls.”
“In the beginning, he was trying figure out where the strike zone was,” Winship said. “He was trying to nibble a little bit. It gave them a couple of (base runners) but then he figured out where (the strike zone) was and he kind of settled in and did a really good job coming down the stretch.”
“He was hitting his spots, and he was getting ground balls and lazy fly balls,” said Reece Armitage, who had two hits. “He had some trouble (early) walking some kids, but he doubled back nicely. He might miss a couple of spots, but he’s really good at adjusting.”
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