Bonny Eagle 11

Biddeford 13

The Bonny Eagle baseball team is the surprise story of this young high school season. Coming off a 1-15 year in 2007 and with a new coach at the helm, the Scots were not mentioned in many of the Class A West playoff discussions before the season.

Yet when the first Heal Point standings were released Tuesday, the Scots stood at No. 2 with a 4-1 record. Their opponent later that afternoon? Another team with a first-year coach off to a fast start this spring, Biddeford – the only team with more Heal Points than the Scots.

Bonny Eagle coach Marc Sawyer said it is important not to put too much stock in the early standings – defending state champ Deering, a favorite to repeat, is undefeated, but only ranked third – but said he made sure to check them out.

“I didn’t say anything to (the team) before the game, but I did check the Heal Points before we left school,” Sawyer said. “If you would have told me that a week or so ago (that we’d be No. 2), absolutely it’s a surprise.”

Bonny Eagle traveled to Biddeford’s St. Louis Field for what turned out to be a slugfest. After the Tigers took a seven-run lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Scots rallied back for five in the seventh before finally falling 13-11 in the SMAA contest.

Biddeford had 16 hits, including a homer over the right field fence from Zach Lauzon to lead off the first. Bonny Eagle had eight hits, one of them a home run to straightaway center field to start the fifth inning from Ricky Hoyt.

Hoyt’s homer tied the game at 4-4, but Biddeford rallied for four runs in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Nate Curran reached on a bunt single. Nick Papa (three hits) followed with a base hit to left, and then Ben Blais (three hits) doubled to score Curran. Pinch hitter Justin Gelinas followed with a double down the third-base line to plate Papa and Blais. Dave Lafortune, pinch running for Gelinas, scored when Lauzon reached on an error, making it 8-4.

The Scots got two back in the sixth without registering a hit. Josh Ruby and Travis Dunn both scored, thanks to a hit batter, error and wild pitch, along with an RBI sacrifice fly from Hoyt.

Biddeford sent 11 men to bat in the bottom of the sixth, scoring five runs. Pinch hitter Josh Scott, Tyler Fleurent, Curran, Papa and Blais all had hits and scored a run. Bonny Eagle starter Lincoln Sanborn was replaced by John Ames after Papa’s hit.

The Tigers used three pitchers in the seventh – and five in the game – before Lauzon came on strike out Scots cleanup hitter Brent Sawyer on a 3-2 pitch to end the game. Sawyer represented the potential tying run.

“I can’t believe it,” Lauzon said of the Scots five-run seventh inning. “I was expecting a 1-2-3 inning. (Tyler Laverriere) usually pumps strikes and so does (Nate) Cadorette, but they had trouble finding the plate, so coach trusts me to come in and shut ’em down.”

Biddeford pitchers Laverriere and Cadorette combined to walk four, hit a batter and allow an RBI single to Casey McKague in the seventh. It was Bonny Eagle’s only hit in the inning.

“Coming off Kennebunk, a one-run game, and that battle with Thornton on Friday, we were hoping to have a little bit of an easy one at the end of the game, but obviously Bonny Eagle had other thoughts and made a game of it late,” said Biddeford coach Casey Roy.

Phil Acin started and pitched three innings for Biddeford. Josh Lessard worked 2.2 innings in relief. Laverriere picked up the win while Sanborn took the loss.

Biddeford, which went 7-9 and lost a playoff prelim game last year, is now 5-1. Bonny Eagle is 4-2.

“It’s good to be 4-2 after six games,” Sawyer said. “It’s a tough league. We’ve got Noble (May 8) and Thornton Academy (May 10), then we go to Hadlock to play Portland (May 13), and we’ve got Deering coming up (May 22). It doesn’t get any easier. We’ll just try to keep plugging away.”

The Scots topped previously unbeaten Westbrook 4-2 on May 3 and defeated Windham 6-4 on May 1.