Freeport and visiting Lake Region battled through eight scoreless innings on Wednesday afternoon – both sides’ pitching turned out top-notch performances, despite some ravenous winds – before Lakers Damon Knight and Nick Wandishin finally made the contact their team needed to jump ahead.
The duo combined for three quick RBIs in the top of the ninth to end the defensive tug-of-war and give Lake Region the win, their third of the season. Factor in their nine losses and the Lakers stand in eighth in B West, one slot behind Morse, but one ahead of the Falcons – who slide to 4-7 on the result.
Lake Region head coach Randy Heath praised his starter on the mound, Charlie McDonough, for not just his cornerstone role in the victory, but his place on the team throughout the season.
“[Charlie’s] made a few outings this year,” Heath said. “He shut down Falmouth, and he’s been performing ever since. The guys are responding to that more than anything. It took one of their own to start rallying. It’s one of their own, putting out the rally cry.”
Likewise, Freeport head coach Bill Ridge had plenty good to say about his starter, Pete Lamagna, who hurled into the ninth, throwing 124 pitches before finally tiring out. Ridge faulted himself for not replacing Lamagna in time to pull out the win.
“[Pete] pitched awesome. I just said to him, ‘If you throw eight scoreless innings, you should never lose.’ That’s on us for not getting that win for him. He threw well enough to win.
“The turning point was, really, Pete’s pitch count got really high. I left him in longer than he should’ve, and that’s my fault, for leaving him in that long. He ran out of gas; you could see that happening.”
“We thought we could ride him one more inning. We really liked that we were coming up two-three-four in the following inning, so we thought, ‘One more, and we don’t even need a 10th.’ Unfortunately, we didn’t need a 10th, but for different reasons.”
The first eight innings passed like time-lapse photography. McDonough, and his fourth-inning reliever, Gunnar Harriman, combined to no-hit the Falcons, even sitting them down on three consecutive pitches in the bottom of the fourth. The Lakers played largely error-free – impressive, given the cutting wind – earning most of their outs on ground balls and flies.
The Lakers’ defense was critical, then, as Heath observed: “Our defense,” he said simply. “Our defense has stepped up game after game; we’ve been in tough situations over and over, and the guys are starting to mesh, they’re trusting each other, and they’re making the plays.”
Freeport likewise looked sharp on defense, also forbidding their opponents from crossing home while playing cleanly in the field. Lamagna grabbed many of the team’s outs, piling K on K until he had 13 under his belt.
Heath had good things to say about Lamagna. “He was unbelievable. A lot of credit to him; he really battled with us. I’ve got kids over .450 in batting average, .375, so he did a real good job shutting us down. Kept us off balance.”
So the game proceeded at a quick clip, and the defensive back-and-forth and 0-0 score kept things taut, but the action itself proved very straightforward.
Perhaps the single most exciting moment – until the Lakers converted in extra innings – came in the bottom of the third, when Freeport’s Caleb Rice, having made it to first on a dropped third strike, eventually rounded to third, but got caught in a pickle on his attempt to reach home.
Lakers Nate Smith and Adam Butler made it to third in the sixth and seventh, respectively, but the Falcons escaped both innings unscathed. Likewise, Freeport’s Colby Wagner in the bottom of the seventh reached third – or, he nearly did, getting called out on the run when Bennett Hight’s grounder hit him in the leg.
Finally, in the top of the ninth, Lake Region managed to break the deadlock. A fatigued Lamagna walked Harriman, then gave up a grounder to Butler. The ball skittered down the left-field line, a hopper that just eluded Falcons third baseman Nate Cyr.
Jordan Williams also grounded to Cyr, who tried for the fielder’s choice tag on Harriman – but missed by inches.
Bases loaded for Knight, who stepped into the box and grounded to Freeport shortstop Jack Davenport; Davenport tried to save the 1-0 run by throwing home, but Harriman beat the attempt.
Wandishin then blasted a ball to deep center – one that bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double and two more RBIs, setting the score at 3-0 Lakers, the final.
Harriman gets the win on the mound, while Lamagna suffers the loss.
“This should absolutely be a wake-up call,” Ridge said. “This is our third straight loss. The first two were really good losses; this is a bad loss that should wake us up. We’ve been talking about, ‘We’ve got to go on a little run here.’ Now, it’s a game later than we were planning on doing that.”
Freeport traveled to Poland on Friday, May 22nd, after Current Publishing’s print deadline. The Falcons host Traip on Tuesday the 26th. Lake Region hosted Fryeburg on Friday, and welcome Gray-New Gloucester on Wednesday the 27th.
Falcons first baseman Caleb Rice grabs a plenty-early throw to catch out a Lake Region batter at home on Wednesday. In the background, second baseman Max Doughty rushes in to back up Rice.
Freeport shortstop Jack Davenport catches out Lakers runner Brandon Palmer at second. Falcons second baseman Max Doughty rushes in to back up Davenport.
Caleb Rice approaches third for the Falcons against visiting Lake Region on Tuesday. Rice would reach the base, but never make it home again: the Lakers downed the Falcons 3-0 in nine innings.
Freeport starter Pete Lamagna was in top form on Tuesday against visiting Lake Region, throwing 124 pitches and striking out 13 batters with especially pretty off-speed hurls.
The Lakers’ Adam Butler jumps off first as he watches the action at home plate. Lake Region trumped Freeport 3-0 in nine innings on Tuesday.
Lake Region’s Gunnar Harriman dashes home for the first run of the Lakers’ game at Freeport on Tuesday. The action unfolded scorelessly through eight innings; Harriman and his two teammates in the 3-0 win didn’t cross the plate until the top of the ninth.
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