After dropping its first five games, some which could have gone either way, the Portland High baseball team has won two straight.
The Bulldogs lost tight games to Scarborough and Marshwood, two of the top teams in the Telegram League.
Additional Photos
Portland has a young team that Coach Tony DiBiase expects to improve as the season progresses. The Bulldogs have only one senior on their roster.
The Telegram League appears to be wide open. Scarborough, Marshwood and Cheverus have the pitching depth and the experience to be at or near the top all season. Noble and Massabesic, which have struggled in the past, have their best teams in years. Sanford had an off year a year ago, but the Redskins are also improved. Westbrook and Windham are also off to promising starts.
Deering, feeling the pain of losing 14 seniors to graduation, has struggled with a 1-5 record, but the Rams nearly knocked off Windham on Thursday before losing 3-2 in 10 innings. Deering left-hander Nick DiBiase and Windham righty Cody Dube squared off in one of the best pitching matchups so far in the young season.
SCARBOROUGH HIGH’S softball juggernaut will have to get along for a couple weeks without standout pitcher/shortstop Mo Hannan.
The senior was diagnosed with mononucleosis last Tuesday.
“I’ve been really run down for the last three weeks,” she said. “That’s why I knew something was wrong. I wasn’t sure if I was doing too much (for workouts) but I was just run down.”
She went to the doctor on Monday and had blood work done, resulting in the diagnosis.
“It’s tough,” Hannan said Thursday as she watched the Red Storm play Thornton Academy, wrapped in a blanket behind the backstop. “But at least it’s not the end of the year.”
Scarborough Coach Tom Griffin was extremely pleased with how his players responded to Hannan’s loss — rallying for six runs in the final two innings to beat Thornton 6-3 in a showdown of unbeaten teams.
“Sure, we’d like to play with her,” said Griffin. “But this showed a lot of character.”
“For us, it was devastating,” said junior pitcher Erin Giles. “But it also showed that we’re not a one-trick pony. We have so many kids who come together to make the team great.”
Griffin had to change his lineup with Hannan gone. Normally she’s his lead-off batter.
Against Thornton, he put the power hitters up high in the lineup — leading off with Alyssa Williamson — and the faster runners at the bottom.
Mary Redmond, the No. 9 hitter, had two hits, scored two runs and sparked two late-inning rallies.
“Our offense, one through nine, is just incredible,” said Giles. “I don’t think we’ve ever had an offense like this.
“It’s just a matter of time with this team.”
AN INJURED FINGER on his right hand has kept Seamus Kilbride out of the Portland’s boys’ lacrosse lineup for the last two games.
“His timeline isn’t set yet.” Portland Coach Eric Begonia said. “It’s a finger issue, and we’re going to see how it looks at the beginning of the week and we’ll go from there. So he’s kind of day-to-day.”‘
Kilbride, one of the few seniors on the Bulldogs’ roster, suffered the injury last Monday in a game against Falmouth. He missed games against Kennebunk and Scarborough, and Portland lost both to fall to 2-5.
“We’ve had to adjust on the fly,” Begonia said. “Our roster has five sophomores starting. We’re pretty young to begin with, so when you lose a senior leader like that who’s been a varsity player for four years and team captain, it makes a big difference.”
— Tom Chard, Mike Lowe and Mark Jeanneret contributed to this report
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.