Legion Baseball: Windham bests a hobbled Massabesic

WINDHAM—The Eagles soared past Massabesic 8-3 on Thursday evening, July 18. Caleb McCartney led Windham’s attack, notching a pair of singles.

“We did enough at the plate to get a win,” Windham head coach Cody Dube said. “I think we took advantage of a lot of their walks, hit batters, that type of thing…It was a team effort; we had some highlights all around.”Robbie Soucy heads for home. Adam Birt / Lakes Region Weekly

Windham jumped on top from the get-go: Nate Plummer walked onto base to kick off the top of the first, then advanced on a wild pitch during McCartney’s at-bat. Plummer moved to third on a Bryce Afthim sac-fly to centerfield and dashed home on a Ryan Sargent fly that managed to drop shallow in left. 1-0.

Massabesic responded in the bottom of the first, evening things up at 1-1 on a bunt, a single and a Windham error at second.

Bob Wing pitches for Windham in game one. Adam Birt ./ Lakes Region Weekly

Windham doubled-down on offense at their next opportunity, however, putting up three more in the top of the second: Chris Naylor singled to reach and eventually scored when Austin Goslant dropped a shot in shallow left; Ryan Silva walked to reach and (eventually) scored on a Plummer single; and Goslant, after gaining first on the aforementioned RBI hit, rounded to home on a McCartney single. 4-1.

“We’ve had Windham teams in the past that played to the level of the game,” Dube said. “So it was nice to have guys come out and do what they should do.”

Massabesic added two in the bottom of the third, for 4-3, but those would be the last runs of their day. Windham cruised to victory from there: The team tallied one – Dustin Noonan scored – in the top of the fourth, and three final in the top of the fifth, when Brady Afthim, Naylor and Ryan Silva all crossed the plate.

Noonan logged a single (a perfect bunt) in the game, as did Silva (a grounder into left). Pete Peterson and Robbie Soucy split pitching duties, with Peterson chalking up the W and Soucy relieving.

Pete Peterson pitches for the Eagles in the second of their two wins. Adam Birt / Lakes Region Weekly

“Pretty good,” Dube said of his pitchers’ efforts. “We battled out there, got ‘em to, you know, weak contact.”

The bout was actually the second of two five-inning outings on the day, both of which were countable for the Eagles. Windham won the first game as well, 7-2. Bob Wing threw the entirety of that contest for the team.

“Bob pitched well,” Dube said. “He gave up two runs in five innings, two runs on eight hits. And four strikeouts. (Defensively,) we played a pretty clean game.”

Worth noting: Massabesic, who already knew that, win or lose, they were doomed to miss the Legion postseason, could only round up a scant nine men to take part in the two contests. More unfortunate still, the team lost its leadoff man to an injury early in the first matchup. They were happy enough to plunge ahead with eight players on the diamond – they pulled a man inward from the outfield – and really didn’t do a bad job in their new formation.

The top four teams in each Legion region earn berths in the State tournament, to be held at Husson in Bangor from July 27 to July 31.