SOUTH PORTLAND—Coastal Landscaping brutalized Cole Post on Saturday afternoon, June 30, stringing 13 hits into 16 runs.

Coastal comprises players from Deering, Cheverus, Yarmouth, Windham and Westbrook, while Cole aggregates athletes from Noble, Massabesic, Sanford, Thornton, Biddeford and Lake Region. 

Interestingly, when the teams met, earlier in the season, Cole emerged narrowly victorious: 1-0, and in 10 innings, no less. For the rematch to unfold as a blistering rout perhaps says something about the role luck can play in a contest.

“It’s a tale of two games,” McCarthy said. “It’s unbelievable. Same team, same group: They’ve got all their guys there, we’ve got all our guys here. We lose 1-0 in 10 innings last game; everything we hit was right at everyone. This game, the ball’s dropping in there…We just hit the ball good.”

No. 1 hitter Luc Harrison (Deering) scored three times for Coastal; Harrison smashed a double into left in the second. No. 2 hitter Griffin Watson (Cheverus) also scored three times, and also added a double into left in the second. Justin Ray (Cheverus) scored twice and had three hits – two singles, one each in the third and fourth, and a leftfield double in the first; Tim Greenlaw (Windham) crossed the plate once, and kicked in a second-inning single and a third-inning triple to center; Dylan Francoeur (Westbrook) never rounded to home, but did contribute a nice single into center in the third; Jack Romano (Yarmouth) tallied two runs, and logged a wide-left double to start the third, followed by a trio of singles in the later innings; Princehoward Yee (Deering) scored three times, and added a single in the third; finally, Toby Burgmaier (Yarmouth) crossed the plate twice.

“We really haven’t hit this well, during the season,” McCarthy said. “It’s been four, five runs; averaging about five runs a game. This is good, to get to the next level.”

Coastal’s biggest inning came in the third, when they added six runs – though they were no slouches in the second (five runs) or the fourth (four runs) either. They also banged out one run in the first.

“We both played good defense,” McCarthy said of the sides. “There was only a couple errors on their part, one on our part. Pitching, defense: That’s where our strong point’s been all year. We’ve only given up – we’re 7-2 now, and we’ve probably given up 15 runs, possibly.”

Cole Post did manage several hits – five singles, to be precise. Jake Laplume (TA), Jake Gregoire (Massabesic), Simon Roberts (Massabesic), Braden Daigneault (Massabesic) and Noah McGrath (Massabesic) picked up one apiece.

Francoeur started on the mound for Coastal, and thus deserves a good deal of praise for sparking the defensive side of the victory.

McCarthy took a moment to applaud a few of his boys, including Francoeur. “Dylan pitched a great game,” he said. “Justin Ray had a great game, had four hits. Could’ve had more; a couple didn’t drop in for him. Overall, a good team effort. Everyone stepped up. For our catcher, Barbeque, to come in and get a couple hits and catch a game in this heat – it’s tough.”

“Barbeque” is, apparently, Yee’s nickname.

Adam Birt can be reached at abirt@keepmecurrent.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CurrentSportsME.

Dylan Francoeur takes a cut at the ball for Coastal Landscape.

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