Concord, NH – The CMCC Baseball squad rallied to tie NHTI on the road in the 9th inning before scoring seven times in the 11th to pull out an 11-4 victory. Lee Robertson went 3-for-5 at the plate and scored what proved to be the winning run while Leo Woods and Teddy McFarland split the game on the mound almost perfectly in half. The Mustangs snapped a three-game losing skid with the win and improved to 6-4 in YSCC play.
Woods got the ball to start, making his debut on the mound for Central Maine. The freshman from Vancouver, BC struck out two in the first inning, as things started off slowly for both teams. CMCC scored twice in the top of the second to take the early lead. Catcher Zac Gorman grounded out to short, but allowed Hayden Durrell to race home. Ryan Stone then did the same thing to second base with Jake Calver hustling home for a 2-0 lead.
The score stayed the same all the way to the sixth inning. Woods wrapped up his fine outing with one out in the bottom half of the inning after allowing two hits. McFarland came on in relief and gave up a ground ball to short, but an error on the play allowed two runs to score, tying things up.
NHTI got two more across the plate in the bottom of the seventh. Three straight singles to right field loaded the bases for Maddux Mackenzie, and the leadoff hitter delivered a sac-fly to score Jayson Sagastume. Richard Thibeault followed that up with a base knock into right to drive in Zachary St. Onge.
The Mustangs' bats stayed silent all the way through the 8th inning, as the visitors struggled against starter Caleb Szafran. The freshman exited the game in the top of the 9th with two men on after Calver got to second safely on an attempt to get the lead runner on Groman's grounder. Travis Graf came on in relief and Stone moved both Calver and courtesy runner Kyle Delano into scoring position with a sac-bunt. Robertson then hit a ball sharply to second and beat the throw to plate Calver. Brandon Gour skied a sacrifice fly into left that sent Delano sprinting home with the tying run to make it 4-4 before McFarland delivered a one-two-three inning to send the game to extras.
It took until the 11th for the Central Maine offense to finally erupt. Liam Waldron came into pitch for NHTI and retired the first two batters he faced. However, the next five batters would all reach safely. Robertson sent a fly ball deep into left and legged out a triple before scoring on an error at third. Gour doubled to left and scored after a pitch got away on Cody Cleaveland's walk. Cleaveland also took advantage to get into scoring position before coming home on another wild pitch to make it 6-3. A Garren Post walk led to another pitching change with Thibeault coming in to try and get the last out.
Durrell lined a single over the middle that drove in two runs and Calver brought him home with a triple of his own into left. Gorman then hit a pop fly into shallow left before being caught in a rundown. The Australian kept himself alive on the basepaths long enough for fellow countryman Calver to score before being tagged out. The wild seven-run inning made it 11-4.
McFarland allowed just one hit in the bottom half of the inning before a groundout to short ended the game and gave him his second win of the season.
The Mustangs and Lynx both have a quick turnaround, playing a pair of games in Auburn on Saturday. It will also be CMCC's senior day game with ten graduating players being recognized during the pregame ceremony. First pitch is slated for 11:00 am.
