CUMBERLAND — Will Bryant didn’t have his best stuff Friday afternoon, but he had more than enough for another victory.
Bryant, a hard-throwing right hander, didn’t allow a ball hit out of the infield during his six innings on the mound as he led unbeaten Greely to an 11-3 win against Poland in a Western Maine Conference baseball game.
While throwing 58 of 89 pitches for strikes, Bryant allowed just one hit, struck out 10, walked one and hit a batter.
“I definitely can throw better,” said Bryant, who will attend Division III Endicott College in Massachusetts in the fall. “That was not my best outing. I can do better.”
Bryant had difficulty throwing his curveball for strikes.
“I missed high. I missed low. I missed basically everywhere,” he said.
“(The) curveball is a feel pitch, and today he didn’t have a feel for it,” Greely Coach Derek Soule said. “Because of his overpowering velocity, he can keep us in the game. His fastball is 85, 87 (miles per hour), and that’s a tough adjustment for most high school hitters.”
Ethan Cailler’s bunt single in the first inning was the only hit allowed by Bryant.
“He had something that was keeping (our hitters) off balance and that’s enough,” Poland Coach Mike Connor said. “As long as he can throw two pitches for strikes, and he can, it’s going to be a long day.”
Still, the Knights (1-4) built a 3-1 lead through three innings.
Poland scored two unearned runs in the first inning, taking advantage of Greely’s only two errors of the game.
The Rangers (4-0) got a run back in the bottom of the second. Caleb Soule beat out an infield hit, went to second on a throwing error and came around to score when Justin Leeman singled sharply to left.
In the third, Poland’s Alex Burns drew a leadoff walk, went to second on Jake Wiseman’s sacrifice, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Adam Mocciola’s squeeze bunt.
But Greely took the lead with four runs in the fourth against Poland starter Zak Lowe.
“Our guys were able to adjust to his split-finger (fastball),” Coach Soule said. “The split-finger is something unorthodox (that) we’re not use to seeing. It has a funny rotation on it, and I like the adjustment the guys made the second, third time around. A lot (about) hitting is being able to make adjustments during games.”
Bryant, who drove in two runs with a homer and a double, led off the fourth with a bloop single to right. After Soule walked, both moved up on Leeman’s sacrifice bunt. Bryant slid under the tag at home after Ryan Twitchell hit a grounder to third, then Dylan Fried lined an RBI single into center. After Austin Nowinski walked to load the bases, Miles Shields slapped a two-run single into left.
The Rangers added two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth.
“Going in, the thought was if they hit hard we’ll throw soft,” Connor said. “We made it into the fourth (inning) with that theory, then they adjusted and started hitting it hard.”
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