The Bonny Eagle baseball team was not able to shake its error-plagued ways but the Scots were able to break a four-game losing streak when they visited Gorham on Thursday afternoon (May 21).

The Scots overcame six errors – they’d been averaging three a game during their losing streak – to hold off the Rams 6-5 in SMAA baseball action at Gorham High School.

The Rams had some fielding problems of their own on Saturday as Gorham fell 8-3 at home to South Portland to drop to 3-9 on the season.

With the win on Thursday, Bonny Eagle improved to 7-4.

Despite coming up on the winning side, Scots coach Marc Sawyer was left scratching his head after watching six different fielders make miscues in five separate innings.

“I’m at a loss,” Sawyer said. “We went out and we ripped balls at them the last few days. We’ve been taking hundreds of grounders. Kids are staying after. They’re making plays in practice. I just think sometimes the game is so mental.”

While the Rams were able to take advantage of the stumbles by the Scots with three unearned runs, they made three errors of their own and had three runners thrown out on the bases.

“I thought our guys did a good job putting pressure on,” said Gorham coach Chuck Nadeau. “We made a lot of mistakes on the base path, but we made mistakes trying to be too aggressive. I told the kids from beginning that if you’re going to make mistakes, be aggressive with them. We did that tonight. There were mistakes and it probably cost us the game.”

Bonny Eagle scored twice in the sixth inning off Gorham reliever Nick Owens to take a 6-3 lead. Owens had come on for starter Nick Gowen with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth to get a crucial strikeout. He got the first two outs in the sixth before running into control problems. A hit batter, three walks, two wild pitches and a balk led to the two Bonny Eagle runs (scored by Joe Davis and Adam Morin), including the would-be game winner.

“Owens came in and got a huge out for us,” Nadeau said. “He hasn’t got a lot of varsity mound time, but he’s got pretty good stuff. He got the first two outs in the sixth, then he just lost focus a little bit. He showed me that he’s really got the stuff to be a good pitcher in this league. I told him afterwards that I don’t have any hesitancy at all to go to him in big situations. He’s just going to have to keep competing.”

Kyle Butterfield led off the bottom of the sixth with a double to left for the Rams. After an out, Sean Grandmaison singled to drive in Butterfield. Steve Broy reached on a grounder back to the mound that Bonny Eagle starter Lincoln Sanborn handled and threw to third to get Grandmaison in a run down. He was eventually tagged out, but not before Broy reached second. He scored when Mike Foley reached on an error, getting the Rams within one.

But a strikeout to end the sixth and a 1-2-3 seventh by Sanborn closed the door on Gorham. Sanborn struck out seven in the complete game, upping his record to 3-2 with five complete games, 42 strikeouts and an ERA under 2 in his five starts.

“Lincoln’s had a great year,” Sawyer said. “The stats don’t lie. We haven’t done a great job supporting him. Sometimes when it gets in your head and you start wondering if people are going to make plays behind you and you start wondering what’s going to happen if the ball goes into play, that effects the way you pitch. I think he overcame that. The key now is trusting each other and picking each other up if we do make mistakes.”

The Scots took a 1-0 lead in the first when Richie Harvey walked, stole second and went to third on a ground out. He scored when the throw back to the mound got away.

Gorham tied it in the third as Broy reached on an infield hit and later scored on an error. Bonny Eagle countered with two runs in the fourth on RBI singles by Kevin Moskevich and Sanborn. The Rams struck back with two of their own in the bottom of the inning thanks to an error, a walk and RBI singles by Broy and Foley.

Moskevich, batting in the eighth spot, drove in his second run of the game and put the Scots up for good on a sacrifice fly to center that scored Travis Dunn. Moskevich finished 2 for 3 with a double.

“He’s been swinging the bat,” Sawyer said. “He swung the bat well in batting practice yesterday and today and it carried over into the game.”

Nadeau was pleased with Gowen’s work on the mound. He allowed eight hits and four runs (two earned) in 4.2 innings.

“I thought Gowen was great,” Nadeau said. “He did what he needed to do to keep us in the game.

Mustafa Jamal, who missed the previous game with a back injury, came on and pitched a scoreless seventh for the Rams.

Jamal returned on Saturday, but was not able to overcome the South Portland attack as the Riots (7-5) got a complete game win from pitcher Chris Gorham, who gave up eight hits while striking out six. Jamal took the loss, pitching 6.2 innings, giving up 10 hits while striking out eight.

South Portland got on the board in the second as the Riots’ Mike Foley grounded to short, but a throwing error moved him to second on the play. Designated hitter Matt Lee made Gorham pay for the error as he smashed a long RBI double to right, scoring Foley.

After Brendan Horton was hit by a pitch, Travis Gulliver singled to load the bases. Gorham then allowed another unearned run as Lee scored on a passed ball, giving the Riots a 2-0 lead.

The Riots got another run in the third, once again taking advantage of another Gorham miscue. With one out, the Riots’ Ryan Curit hit a grounder to short, but once again the throw got by Gorham first baseman Alex Libby and Curit advanced to second. Curit scored on a Foley grounder as he broke for third as Foley was thrown out at first, the Rams attempted to get Curit at third, but the throw got past Gorham third baseman Kyle Butterfield and the Riots had a 3-0 lead.

Gorham got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth, as Brendon Joyce had a huge two-RBI double to center field to pull the Rams within one at 3-2.

But the Riots opened the game up in the sixth as Gulliver doubled in two more runs, part of a three-run outburst that gave South Portland a 6-2 advantage. The Riots would add two more runs in the seventh for the 8-2 win.

Additional material by Sports Editor Mike Higgins