Luc Harrison may never forget his 18th birthday.
When your inside-the-park home run at Hadlock Field isn’t even the top highlight of the afternoon, you know it’s a memorable occasion.
A senior at Deering High, Harrison rushed from the home dugout in the bottom of the seventh to mob teammate Keegan Stanton after his one-out, two-run double gave the Rams a 6-5 victory – and their only lead of the game – Tuesday over Windham in the SMAA baseball opener for both teams.
After his two-run homer in the fifth pulled Deering to within 5-4 in a game the Rams had trailed 5-0, Harrison fanned to lead off the home seventh.
“I was sad and disappointed,” he said, “but I’m so happy Keegan pulled through. It was a great birthday surprise.”
The winning rally started with a hit batsman, Josh Paisley, who hit safely in each of his previous three trips to the plate. Two wild pitches moved Paisley to third. A walk to Luke Hill and a stolen base set up the clincher.
Stanton worked the count full, fouled back a pitch and blasted the next to deep center to complete Deering’s comeback.
“Aw, that was an insane feeling,” said Stanton, who had squared as if to bunt on the first three pitches from Windham reliever Bryce Afthim. “Honestly, I felt as soon as I made contact that I was getting to first. And then it kept traveling, and I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t even know I was going to do that.’ It was a great feeling.”
Both teams are coming off 7-9 seasons with early playoff exits, Windham in a preliminary game and Deering in a regional quarterfinal.
The Eagles struck early Tuesday, taking a 1-0 lead in the second on Kyle Herzig’s double, a wild pitch and passed ball. They added four more in the third as Chris Naylor, Bryce Afthim, Brady Afthim and Herzig strung together consecutive hits off Paisley, the Deering starter, in his varsity debut.
Windham starter Tanner Bernier breezed through three innings before Paisley, Hill and Stanton singled to load the bases with none out in the fourth. A muffed potential double-play grounder and a dropped foul pop helped Deering cut the margin to 5-2.
A leadoff walk in the fifth preceded Harrison’s home run. Suddenly, Deering was back in it at 5-4.
“Baseball’s a game where you can rally around certain people, pick up certain energy,” Deering Coach Josh Stowell said. “Once you get one guy into it, the next guy can pick it up and everyone kind of rides the wave.”
Stowell said momentum shifted in the top of the fourth, when Hill relieved Paisley with the bases loaded and two outs and Windham threatening to break the game open. A potential wild pitch caromed hard off the backstop leaving Naylor, attempting to score from third, in a pickle from which he did not escape.
The Eagles didn’t get another hit off Hill, who struck out four and walked two in two more innings, or Mike Jones, who pitched a perfect seventh.
“The bats fell asleep after that third inning, so it was tough for us to get back into a groove and get anything going offensively,” said Windham Coach Brody Artes. “But Deering gets all the credit in the world. They stuck with it being down 5-0 and they deserved to win.”
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or
Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
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