WELLS — For most of the season, junior left-hander Keith Ramsey has been the top reliever for the Wells High baseball team, used to close out wins.
In Wednesday’s 5-1 win against a potent Yarmouth lineup, Ramsey showed he can start and finish. Even in rainy conditions.
Ramsey gave up a leadoff hit by Matt Gautreau, then retired 18 straight, keeping his composure and maintaining his ability to spot pitches even after a persistent rain began just as the third inning ended.
Yarmouth put together a pair of hits in the seventh inning to scratch across its run in a meeting of two of the top teams in the Western Maine Conference and Class B South.
“This was only my second start. I’ve been more coming in tight situations late in the game,” Ramsey said.
With the playoffs looming, Ramsey said he’ll be ready, “wherever they need me. If they need me to start and throw seven (innings), I’ll do that. If they need me to throw one to end the game, I’ll do that.”
Ramsey allowed three hits and no walks and struck out nine.
Effectively spotting a lively fastball on the outside corner, he got a lot of soft contact. Yarmouth hit four pop-ups to the right side. Wells right fielder Nick Olsen made four routine putouts on high fly balls.
“He’s the ace. He picks his spots very well and finds them,” said Wells Coach Blake Pease.
Wells and Yarmouth are 10-4 and battling for second place in the Class B South Heal point standings.
For the second straight game, Wells avenged an earlier loss against a top-rated team. The Warriors beat No. 1 Cape Elizabeth on Monday 7-1 behind junior starter Spencer Carpenter.
Since an 8-1 setback at Yarmouth, Wells has won four straight, allowing just two runs.
“It’s learning. Seeing what they do, seeing what we can improve on,” said Wells senior catcher Caden Dufort, who helped his pitcher by blocking three third strikes in the dirt and then making the throw to first to finish the out.
Wells scored four runs in the second inning against Yarmouth starter David Swift. Ramsey, Dufort and Mike Lewinski started the outburst with consecutive singles. Olsen drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the first run. Dufort beat the throw home on a slow roller to first by Chase Trudeau to make it 2-0. The other runs scored on an RBI single by Ayden Collins and a groundout by Carpenter.
Ramsey helped his own cause with an RBI single in the sixth, driving home Carpenter, who walked and moved up on an error.
Yarmouth lost its second game in two days. On Tuesday, the Clippers had a 10-game winning snapped in an 11-0 loss to Class A Oxford Hills. In its 10 wins, Yarmouth scored 76 runs.
“We need to play better, hit better,” said Yarmouth Coach Marc Halstead. “Oxford Hills yesterday, down here today, and we should have scored more than one run in the last 26 hours, but no excuses. Good pitcher who had a good day. We just have to swing the bats better.”
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