BATH

The Morse High School baseball team has been haunted by quiet bats and errors for a majority of the season, and on Monday the same two aspects got the best of the Shipbuilders once more as visiting Belfast went on to take a 5-2 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference victory.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing right now,” Shipbuilders (4-7) head coach Garrett Olson said. “We’re kind of beating ourselves. Our offensive approach at the plate has been awful as of late. In terms of base running we ran ourselves out of a, big inning. A kid gets doubled up when you have first and second and nobody out. All of their runs we kind of gave them.”

“We’re definitely battling with scoring runs,” Monday’s starting pitcher Zach Holbrook said. “We haven’t had a history of being bad in the field, it’s been a few games here and there. We just need to altogether pick up the intensity.”

It was quiet on both sides of the lineup card through the first two innings, with Holbrook unofficially retiring the side in order in the first after allowing a hit to Lucien Smith, who was then erased during a caught stealing play at second.

Keegan McDonough walked to lead things off for Morse, but was left stranded after the next three hitters went down. Holbrook then dealt a stellar second inning, getting three outs on just four pitches.

Come the third inning, Belfast (7-4) found a way onto the scoreboard. With the first two hitters retired, Sam Kolikowski was hit by a pitch and was able to advance to second on a wild pitch. Alex Flagg reached on a fielding error, to which Kolikowski was able to make his way around to score.

“Playing baseball my whole life I’ve kind of learned to brush those things off and keep doing my job on the mound,” Holbrook said. “The guys behind me will step up, no one is going to make a mistake every time. You just keep your head straight and it’s not too bad.”

An inning later the Lions added two more when starting pitcher Emery Dinsmore (complete game, six strikeouts) helped out his own cause, belting a two-run home run about 10 feet to the left of the right-field foul pole, extending his team’s lead to 3-0.

In the bottom half, the Shipbuilders threatened when Trevor Drouin led off with a single to right. He advanced to second on a stolen base. Ethan Winglass reached on a fielding error, leaving runners at first and second, but a Holbrook line drive ended up in the mitt of Lions shortstop Garrett Hamlin, who snapped a throw back to second for a double play, ending the threat.

The Lions notched two more runs in the top of the fifth to take a 5-0 advantage. Zack Dyer reached second on a fielding error and was followed up by a walk issued to Kolikowski. Dyer stole third to put runners on the corners and an attempted double-play attempt that resulted in a 5-4 fielder’s choice allowed Dyer to score, with Kolikowski hustling in behind him after a misplay at first.

In the home half of the sixth, the Shipbuilders were able to grab their two runs. McDonough doubled down the left-field line and scored when Drouin’s fly ball resulted in a miscue in the outfield, putting him at second base. With two outs on the board and Drouin at third, Andrew LaCavera reached on another error, allowing Drouin to score the second and final Shipbuilder run.

“We got to get a little confidence,” Olson said about what it’ll take to turn his team around. “We have to get the bats going, we’ve been struggling to get our bats going, big time. It’s been tough, we’ve had some guys struggling at the plate and battling through some stuff. We have to come out, get those hits, and hopefully get the bats going come time for the end of the year.”

“We have to come together and be a team,” Holbrook said. “We’re not all pulling in the same direction. There are some things that we definitely have to work on, team bonding. That will be big.”

Belfast 5, Morse 2

At Kelly Field in Bath
Belfast — 001 220 0 — 5-4-3
Morse — 000 002 0 — 2-4-4
Emery Dinsmore and Kyle Artkop;
Zach Holbrook, Jacob Cressey (7)
and Josh McDougal.
Doubles — (M) Keegan McDonough,
Brendon Harper.
Homerun — (B) Emery Dinsmore.
Records — Belfast 7-4, Morse 4-7.
Up next for the Shipbuilders — Friday at Mt. View, 4 p.m.