SCARBOROUGH – The Biddeford Tigers cobbled together a rally of base hits and walks to tie the Scarborough Red Storm 4-4 in the seventh on Saturday afternoon. It took two more innings for the Red Storm to finally wring another run from the Tigers and secure victory. Eric Pemberton’s shot to center in the bottom of the eighth brought Sam Terry home and put Scarborough on top, 5-4.
The Red Storm advance to 6-0, while Biddeford drops to 1-5.
“The guys did a good job of being selective in pitches and getting hitters’ counts,” said Biddeford head coach Keith LeBlanc, of the keys to his team’s comeback. “We got a few walks there in the fifth, the sixth inning – [we were] able to get some runs that way.”
“Runner on third base, less than two outs is a scenario we work every day in batting practice,” Scarborough head coach Ryan Jones said, referring to the situation in which his team found itself just before Pemberton came up big. “Get him in, from third, whether it be a base hit – always works – a deep fly ball, which…is what we had.
“Eric Pemberton, I think this is probably his second start of the year we had our starting centerfielder get injured in our previous game so we needed guys to step up. That’s one thing we’ve been preaching…without our star centerfielder, somebody’s going to have to step up…Today it was Pemberton.”
The Red Storm started strong, scoring two in the first. Brendan Hall smacked a base hit to start the action, and two batters later, Ben Greenberg drove a triple to deep center-right, bringing Hall home. Sam Wessel then stepped to the plate and belted a double of his own to center, scoring Greenberg and putting Scarborough on top early.
Jones lauded Greenberg’s game, as well as Hall’s. “They both had triples,” he said. “They haven’t really shown Hall especially a lot of power; he’s capable of it, but just hasn’t done it yet. So that’s encouraging to see.”
Scarborough posted two more runs in the fifth, when Trevor Sparda drove a hit at Biddeford shortstop Pat Wilson, who knocked it down but couldn’t get the throw over to first in time. Aaron Ravin then stepped into the box, eventually getting thrown out at first, but allowing Sparda to advance to second in the meantime. Hall fired off his triple next, bringing Sparda home before Nick Bagley popped a shot to deep center. Centerfielder Casey Twomey caught Bagley out, but Hall had plenty of time to tag up on third and still make it home.
“Defensively today, we didn’t play well at all,” LeBlanc said when asked what cost Biddeford the comeback victory. “When [Scarborough] got their opening hit, and they were trying to move the run over, and they did a nice job of getting the bunt down, and we have a pass ball to let runners go to second and third, it puts the defense in a tight spot.”
The Tigers remained scoreless through five. They got on the board in the top of the sixth, but their major production came in the seventh. Corey Brown lobbed a ball to deep center and landed himself on second to catalyze the rally, and Bryan Gelinas then made it to first on balls. Scarborough pitcher Nate Wessel fell into trouble then, walking three more batters, Nick LeBlond, Twomey and Chris Gregorie, which brought Brown and Gelinas home. The Red Storm swapped out pitchers again, Matt Hartl stepping in for Wessel. Hartl managed to escape the inning, but not before the Tigers had tied the score at 4-4.
“We just couldn’t get that big hit when we needed it, with guys on base…to break the game open,” LeBlanc said. “We must’ve left 12, 15 guys on base. At some point, somebody’s got to step up and get that big hit in that big situation.”
In the bottom of the eighth, Collard hit batter Sam Terry with a pitch, and LeBlanc replaced Collard with Nate Hyot. Scarborough’s Nate Wessel then bunted, pushing Terry to second. Pemberton next stepped to the plate. On an errant pitch, Terry stole third, and when Pemberton knocked a shot to center and the fielder dropped it Terry scored, giving the Red Storm their win.
Jones also praised his closer. “Matt Hartl hadn’t thrown a pitch off the mound all day,” he said. We had to get him in there to close it out and he reacted really well.”
“We’ve had a couple tough losses here in the last week or so,” LeBlanc said. “I think we can play with the top teams in our league obviously Scarborough is one of the top teams; we can play with the top teams. It’s a matter of execution at critical times.”
Jayme Lappin gets the win for the Red Storm, while Corey Collard absorbs the loss for Biddeford. Scarborough next faces off against Noble. That game is at home on Tuesday, at 4 p.m. The Tigers will host Deering, also on Tuesday at 4.
Red Storm third baseman Ben Greenberg awaits the pitch.
Scarborough pitcher Jayme Lappin hurls the ball toward home plate.
Scarborough runner Brendan Hall is caught out by Biddeford second baseman Brady Fleurent.
Biddeford’s Bryan Gelinas slides into second, where he’s caught out by Scarborough’s Eric Pemberton.
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