SACO – The Kennebunk baseball team spoiled Thornton Academy’s early bid at a perfect season with a 1-0 victory Monday.

After five scoreless innings, Kennebunk’s Tommy Lazos delivered a huge hit that knocked Luc Gaucher across home plate.

“Great win,” said Kennebunk coach Brian Dill. “Our pitcher was tough, pitched really well. That’s baseball, you pitch well and play great defense – you’ve got a chance to win. We could always use a few more runs, but we’ll take that.”  

The key to the Rams win was the strong pitching of Ronin Tachibana and Oliver Leonard.

Tachibana allowed no runs on four hits over 6.2 innings.

“It was great to see our guys in a game like that,” said Dill. “Ronin was on top of everything today. Tommy Lazos, the catcher behind the plate, was working hard.”

Even Thornton Academy was impressed with the effort of the Rams’ hurler.

“Ronin did a really good job – I knew he was a good pitcher,” said Thornton Academy coach Jason Lariviere. “He had a couple different pitches that he was throwing giving us a hard time to put together any sort of momentum.”

Leonard threw a third of an inning in relief out of the bullpen. The sophomore induced a fly out to finish off the game.

Ryan Penney took the loss for the Trojans. He went 4.2 innings, allowing one run on four hits and striking out three.

“We both played well defensively,” said Lariviere. “Our pitching staff both did well it’s just they scratched across the rubber and we couldn’t.”

After almost pitching a complete game, you think your arm would be a little sore.

“Honestly, my arm is fine,” said Tachibana. “It’s a win and (Thornton Academy’s) a really good team so we can only get better from here.”

Thornton had a chance to score in the third when Cody Bowker hit a single but Bowker was soon tagged out after trying to steal second base.

Ryan Connors led the Rams with two hits in three at-bats.

Cameron Seymour went 2-for-3 at the plate to lead Thornton Academy in hits.

“I had a feeling after the third inning that it was going to be a one or two-run game and they got the big hit when they had to,” said Lariviere.

The Rams improve to 3-1 while the Trojans drop to 3-1.

Kennebunk travels to Deering and Thornton Academy heads to Portland today.

The Rams plan to play with the same energy they brought to the field Monday afternoon.

“You can’t sit back,” said Dill. “You have got to come back and play as intense tomorrow as we were today.”

The Trojans are excited to get back on the rubber and rid the taste of defeat from their mouths.

“It’s going to be a tough game,” said Lariviere. “It’s actually good that we get to get back on the field quickly… We’ll see what happens.”

— Sports Writer Sienna Barstow can be reached at sbarstow@journaltribune.com or at 780-9018. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports

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