SCARBOROUGH — Scarborough High right-hander Morgan Pratt benefited from six Windham errors that led to five unearned runs and a quick six-run lead.

Then Pratt had to overcome his own team’s defensive hiccups.

Despite his limited pitching resume, he responded positively and Scarborough held on for a 6-4 win in the preliminary round of the Class A South baseball tournament Wednesday.

“They made it a game again. Pratt got tougher,” said Scarborough Coach Mike D’Andrea. “So because (he) reached back and, I felt, elevated what he was doing on the mound, it kind of settled us down a little bit.”

Eighth-seeded Scarborough (10-7) will be at top-ranked Falmouth (15-1), the defending regional champion, in a quarterfinal at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Scarborough and ninth-seeded Windham (7-10) each scored just one earned run, and each had seven hits. Scarborough’s offense wilted against Windham reliever Zach Skillings, who came on with no outs in the second and gave up just three hits over five innings.

Windham scored twice in the third, aided by an outfield throwing error, then twice more in the fourth thanks to two infield errors.

Pratt worked out of a two-on, no-out situation in the fifth, retired the side in order in a 10-pitch sixth, then got the leadoff man in the seventh.

After throwing 107 pitches (the max is 110), he was relieved by Jack Clark.

“You’re just trying to take it batter by batter, do the little things, hit your spots, make the smart plays,” Pratt said. “If you do all that stuff you should be OK.”

Pratt, Scarborough’s top shortstop, didn’t pitch at all as a freshman or sophomore, and initially was slotted as an occasional reliever for his junior season.

D’Andrea said while other starting candidates struggled, Pratt kept improving.

“He’s getting stronger and figuring out how to pitch, and he’s growing as a pitcher,” D’Andrea said.

Pratt struck out two, got 11 groundouts, three infield pops and four soft fly balls. All of Windham’s hits were singles.

Windham hurt itself with six errors and nearly as many mental mistakes.

After Eagles starter Bryce Afthim (1 inning, 5 runs, 4 hits) hit leadoff batter Zach Alofs with a curveball in the first inning, Tim Carion laid down a bunt. When it was misplayed by charging third baseman Caleb McCartney, no one covered either third base or second.

Alofs raced to third and Carion continued to second.

“We definitely pride ourselves on our defense,” said Windham Coach Brody Artes. “We haven’t been as sharp this year as we’ve been in the past but we’ve typically made the plays that we didn’t make today.”

Cam Seymour (single), Wyatt Plummer (groundout) and Zoltan Panyi (single) each drove in a run. Panyi scored when Noah Frink’s routine fly to right was lost in the sun and dropped for a double.

Scarborough’s two second-inning runs came via a two-out outfield error.

Scarborough returned the favor with three of its four errors coming in the next two innings, leading to three unearned runs. Tim Greenlaw and McCartney (2 for 3 with a walk) had RBI singles in the third.

Steve Craig can be reached at 791-6413 or:

scraig@pressherald.com

Twitter: SteveCCraig

Related Stories