FALMOUTH — Brad Smith is hoping a couple of late-season, confidence-building victories will be just what his team needs heading into the playoffs.
Smith, Gray-New Gloucester’s coach, saw his team put together one of those wins Wednesday, grinding out a 3-1 victory over Falmouth as the teams closed out their Western Maine Conference regular-season baseball schedules.
“We’re starting to compete and beat the elite teams,” said Smith. “I’ll be the first to say we are not there yet but we feel good in the direction we’re going. More importantly, these kids believe it.”
Gray-New Gloucester (10-6) entered the game against No. 2 Falmouth (13-3) seeded eighth. The Patriots, who have won 4 of 5, expected the win over the Yachtsmen to provide a positive impact in the Heal point standings.
“We were pumped about this game because we knew this would bump us up quite a few spots if we could take this one,” said Aaron Boulos, who paced the Patriots with a pair of doubles.
“We knew we could do it. It was just a matter of going out and playing well.”
The Patriots had an opportunity to blow the game open early but Falmouth starter Addison Foltmer (3-1) managed to wiggle out of trouble in each of the first three innings.
Gray-New Gloucester had two on with one out in the first before Foltmer recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
The Patriots loaded the bases in the next two innings but were unable to score.
Trailing 1-0, the Patriots finally capitalized in the fifth.
Tim Lerette began the rally with a leadoff single followed by a Kevin Cavallaro walk. Pat Robinson laid down a bunt single and a throwing error allowed Lerette to score from third to tie the game.
A wild pitch and a run-scoring double by Boulos scored the final two runs of the inning to give the Patriots a 3-1 lead.
Gray-New Gloucester starter Kyle Nielsen (3-3) allowed one run on six hits in the complete- game victory.
Falmouth scored in the third inning. Ryan Conley drew a one-out walk and was driven home by back-to-back singles to give the Yachtsmen a 1-0 advantage.
Foltmer allowed three runs on seven hits in the loss. He walked five and struck out three in five innings.
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