SCARBOROUGH – Chris Tinsman’s two-out, two-run single highlighted a seven-run seventh inning as Cheverus rallied to beat Windham 10-8 in the Telegram League baseball championship game Friday night at Scarborough High School.
The fourth-seeded Stags trailed 6-3 heading into their last at-bat. They sent 12 men to the plate to overtake the No. 3 Eagles.
Additional Photos
“I think we came out a little flat to start, but I think everyone kept their heads up and used positive energy in the late innings,” said Tinsman, who was hit by a pitch three times and scored three times.
“That definitely was the reason we won. We got up in the top of the seventh and got hits.”
Cheverus advanced to the championship game by beating No. 1 Marshwood 3-2 in eight innings earlier in the day. The victory left the Stags thin in the pitching department and forced Coach Mac McKew to rely on some inexperienced arms against Windham.
Brady Murray and Brad Carney, neither of whom had pitched at the varsity level, split the first six innings of the final. Murray allowed six runs on five hits in the first three innings. Carney gave up one hit in three shutout innings.
“We were pretty much out of pitching for the most part,” said McKew. “I give Murray and Carney credit for throwing strikes. We made some errors (a total of seven), and we didn’t play great by any stretch of the imagination.
“I think a letdown on both sides in the second game today was evident.”
Windham reached the final with a 2-0 victory over No. 2 Scarborough.
The Eagles seemed to have things under control against the Stags through six innings. They scored in each of the first three innings, including four runs on three hits and two Cheverus errors in the third, to build a 6-2 lead.
Windham starter Shawn Francouer limited the Stags to three runs on five hits in five innings before exiting with a 6-3 advantage. Tanner Laberge came on in the sixth and allowed the first two batters to reach before getting out of the inning with three straight strikeouts.
The Stags loaded the bases to open the seventh, forcing another pitching change. Joe Francouer came on and retired the first two batters he faced, allowing a run on a groundout, before Tinsman’s game-tying single. Francouer allowed four more runs before finally getting out of the inning.
Windham threatened in its half of the seventh against Cheverus reliever Mitchell Powers. The Eagles capitalized on two more errors by the Stags to score a pair of runs and had the tying run on first before being retired.
“This is what makes baseball so great,” said Windham Coach Mike Fullerton. “There’s no time limit and anything can happen.
“This game is alive and has feelings and if you’re not paying attention it can rip your heart out real quick. You can never take a team lightly for one out or one pitch. That’s kind of what we learned from this.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.