AUGUSTA — Skowhegan Coach Roger Stinson vowed his team’s offense would appear Thursday after being shut down the day before in the American Legion baseball state tournament.
He was right.
Friday's games
at Augusta
n Yankee Ford (S. Portland) vs. Rogers Post (Auburn), completion of suspended game (Rogers leads 6-1 in fourth inning), 10 a.m.
n Skowhegan vs. Pastime (Lewiston), 10 a.m.
n Wells vs. loser of Yankee Ford-Rogers Post, noon
n Coffee News (Bangor) vs. Yankee Ford-Rogers Post winner, 3:30 p.m.
Skowhegan scored 11 runs in the third inning and went on to a 14-2 victory against Fayette-Staples of Saco in a seven-inning elimination game at McGuire Field.
“That’s a lot more like it,” Stinson said after his team totaled 13 hits. “Everybody was swinging the bats. It worked out from the beginning.”
Skowhegan (17-11) will face Pastime of Lewiston in another elimination game at 10 a.m. Friday.
Ryan Emery went 3 for 5 with two RBI and three runs. Evan Bess and Will Stinson each drove in two and scored twice, and Chase Malloy and Cody Laweryson had two hits apiece.
Everyone in the starting lineup got at least one hit.
“We had a really rough game (Wednesday). None of us were hitting,” Emery said.
“I think today we came more prepared and more ready to play.”
The offense allowed Stinson to pull his ace, Laweryson, off the mound after two innings and 23 pitches so he pitch again Friday.
Skowhegan’s first seven batters reached against Fayette-Staples starter Zachary Ham. An error, and RBI singles by Emery and Laweryson brought in three runs.
“It was very important (to set the tone early) after coming out flat yesterday,” Stinson said. “The boys knew that this was do-or-die.”
“Usually, our game is playing small-ball. We get guys at first and second and nobody out, it’s almost a no-brainer that we’re going to bunt,” Laweryson said.
“But we had everybody hitting today, so we let our guys swing the bat.”
In the third, Skowhegan sent 15 batters to the plate, scoring 11 runs on seven hits, all singles, and three walks, plus three Fayette-Staples errors.
“We just got so far behind, we just couldn’t catch up,” Fayette-Staples assistant coach James Searle-Belanger said.
Emery, who had two hits and scored twice in the inning, got the rally started with a leadoff single. Two-run singles by Stinson and Bess and RBI singles from Emery, Malloy and Mike Berry kept the inning going.
WELLS 10, COASTAL LANDSCAPE 0: Cam Cousins hit a two-run single as part of a five-run third inning and Wells (18-4) beat Coastal Landscape of Portland in an elimination game at Augusta.
Cousins finished with three RBI, and Ryan Coughlan had three hits. Cody Cousins pitched six shutout innings, allowing four hits and striking out four to pick up the win.
COFFEE NEWS 12, PASTIME 0: Coffee News of Bangor (20-5) handed Pastime of Lewiston its first loss in the double-elimination tournament, winning in eight innings at Augusta.
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