Players from the Bonny Eagle and Scarborough baseball teams joined forces last summer as to capture the American Legion Zone 4 championship as the Libby Mitchell team. They’ll be reunited shortly this summer with hopes of defending their title.

The two schools were pitted against each other, however, last Thursday (June 11) in a Western Maine Class A baseball quarterfinal matchup at Scarborough’s McFarland Field, and the Legion friendships were put on the backburner.

Two of the SMAA’s top pitchers in Scarborough senior Chris Bernard – the league player of the year, as well as the Maine Gatorade Player of the Year – and Bonny Eagle junior ace Lincoln Sanborn took to the hill.

“It’s business on the field,” Bernard said. “You can talk to them before and after, but when you’re on the field, you’ve got to take care of business. They’re good kids and we’ll have a good summer, but we love to beat each other at the same time.”

Bernard let his bat do the talking early.

He crushed the first pitch he saw in the first inning for a two-out, two-run homer that sailed well over the left field fence, scoring Brendan Sullivan, who reached on a sharp single to center the at-bat before. The No. 3 Red Storm added two runs in the third, then held off the No. 6 Scots en route to a 4-2 win.

“The only pitch I was going to swing at on the first pitch was a fastball,” Bernard said. “He left one in, so I took advantage of it.”

“Linc just left the ball out over the plate and Bernard hit it about 500 feet or so I think,” said Bonny Eagle coach Marc Sawyer. “He hit it pretty hard. The thing about Chris is he works off emotion. I told my guys after they came in after the first inning and were getting ready to hit in the top of the second that he’s going to be bringing it. With that emotion, he came out and threw a little bit harder.”

Bernard, who pitched a complete game with seven strikeouts, didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning and surrendered only three for the game. Sanborn also threw a complete game. Both pitchers received some shaky play behind them, as the teams each committed three errors.

Two miscues by the Scots in the third helped the Storm pad its lead. Jimmy Rouse reached on an error and Sullivan followed with an infield hit. After a deep sacrifice fly from Bernard, Rouse scored on an error, then Sullivan crossed the plate on Will Armishaw’s RBI single, making it 4-0.

Bonny Eagle got both its runs in the fifth, as John Simon singled and Josh Ruby reached on an error. Richie Harvey singled to score Simon and Ruby scored on Tim Grovo’s fielder’s choice.

“In a battle like me and Lincoln were having, I think (the fielders) tend to get on their heels,” Bernard said. “But they made the plays in the field later to make up for it.”

“In the fifth inning, we booted a couple balls but we didn’t let it get to us,” said Scarborough coach Jim Cronin. “We came up with some big plays in the sixth.”

Bernard put the Scots down 1-2-3, all on grounders, in the sixth, then sandwiched a single, walk and fielder’s choice between two strikeouts in the seventh.

“We had our chances but we just didn’t take advantage of what we needed to take advantage of,” Sawyer said.

The Scots finished the season at 11-7, topping Kennebunk in a prelim before falling to Scarborough. Scarborough defeated No. 10 South Portland in the semifinals on Saturday to advance to the regional championship against No. 1 Deering on Wednesday.

A league cellar dweller just three years ago, Bonny Eagle has seen a resurgence under Sawyer.

“You think of where we were a couple seasons ago, now we’ve had a pair of 10-6 (regular) seasons, we won a prelim this time,” Sawyer said. “We’ve had two pretty good years, taking everything into consideration.

“The thing about my guys is they never quit. In two years, they’ve never quit. They come out and play hard. They play every inning. They play every at-bat. My guys care. That’s all you can ask for.”