Scarborough’s Chris Bernard laced a double down the third base line with two outs in the sixth inning to score two runs and complete a Scarborough comeback as the Red Storm downed South Portland 7-5 at McFarland Field in Scarborough on Saturday.
Scarborough improved to 8-6 while South Portland dropped to 7-7. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Red Riots.
The Red Storm trailed 5-2 entering the bottom of the fifth. Brendan Sullivan singled to lead off and scored on Jake Rutt’s double to right field. Jimmy Rouse reached on and infield hit and Rutt advanced to third, then scored when Ian Ramsdell hit into a fielder’s choice to make it 5-4 after five.
Sullivan, the No. 9 hitter, doubled to center in the sixth with two outs and no one on.
“That was the best at bat of the year,” said Scarborough coach Jim Cronin. “He’s got two strikes on him, he just battles up there and gets the base hit to start everything off.”
After Rutt was intentionally walked, Rouse singled to load the bases. Ramsdell reached on an error, which scored Sullivan and tied the game. It brought Bernard to the plate with the bases loaded.
“I just wanted to put it in play and make them make the play,” Bernard said. “It ended up being a double down the line.”
It scored Rutt and Rouse and gave the Red Storm a 7-5 lead. Bernard had three hits on the day. He sandwiched a walk between two groundouts and a strikeout to retire the Red Riots in the seventh.
“It’s a big win,” Bernard said. “They beat us last year late in the year and that hurt, so it’s a little bit of a revenge game.”
Scarborough took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Ramsdell’s single scored Rutt, who singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. South Portland tied it in the second as Ryan Curit tripled and scored on Chris Biskup’s single.
The Red Riots added two unearned runs in the third. Neil Ravin doubled in Bernard in the fourth to cut the South Portland lead to 3-2. An RBI double from Will Furbush and an RBI single from Matt Lee put the Red Riots up 5-3 in the fifth.
Both Scarborough and South Portland struggled to start the year, but have come on strong in the past couple weeks. Scarborough has now won four in a row.
“That was a huge win for us,” Cronin said. “Both teams kind of started the season the same way. We both scuffled a little bit, but both teams are playing very well as of late. This was, in our mind, one of the biggest games of the year for us.”
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