Mt. Ararat’s Devin Tobin delivers a pitch to the plate during the first inning of a high school baseball game against Morse at Bowdoin College. The Eagles took down the Shipbuilders, 17-7. (Eric Maxim / The Times Record)
BRUNSWICK — The game of baseball can sometimes be like a rollercoaster, with steep climbs and some real sharp dips. The Mt. Ararat high school baseball team experienced that ride against a game against Morse on Monday by falling behind 5-0 after a half inning.
The Eagles answered with four runs in their half of the frame and exploded for seven runs in the fourth to pull away from the Shipbuilders for a 17-7 victory in five innings at Bowdoin College.
“We’ve had a couple of games where we didn’t approach the game like we’d like to, so today was good, I liked the way they battled back today,” Mt. Ararat coach Brett Chase said. “Any time you play Morse it’s going to be a dog fight, they’re good, we got a little lucky today.”
Mt. Ararat improved to 6-2 and will host Edward Little (5-3) on Wednesday at Bowdoin College (4:30 p.m.). Morse fell to 4-3 and will play a full slate of games this week with Medomak Valley at home today, at Brunswick on Wednesday, and at Gray-New Gloucester on Friday.
“We have a lot of games this week, so we have to keep track of our pitchers,” Morse coach Niko Ruiz said as he and his staff closely watched pitch counts of his three hurlers on Monday.
Morse jumped on Mt. Ararat early, taking advantage of walks and Eagles miscues early on.
After the Shipbuilders loaded the bases, Isaak Flaming was hit by a pitch to score Ty Knowlton with the first run. Two batters later, Gabe Aucoin hit a double over the outfield, plating Austin Magliozzi and Jackson Walker. Following a strike out by Eagles starter Devin Tobin, Brendan Cahill singled home a run and number nine hitter Caleb Tibbitts smacked an RBI double to put the visitors ahead, 5-0.
“We came out hot and had their energy up and we were looking good, we were hoping to sustain that the whole time,” Ruiz said.
Third baseman Brady Mitchell ripped the key hit in the home half, hitting a three-run double after a single and a pair of walks loaded the bases. Designated hitter Kyle Secone knocked in Mitchell to complete the four-run inning.
A Mt. Ararat walk, an error and a ground ball single by Flaming that hit the first base bag led to two more runs for Morse in the second. But Tobin struck out the final two hitters of the inning to keep the deficit at three, 7-4.
“We hit the ball hard, we were seeing the ball well today as we’ve seen Devin before, we just couldn’t get to him,” Ruiz said.
Tobin found his groove, allowing just a third-inning single to Cahill over the next two innings to retire eight of the last nine batters he faced.
“I wasn’t hitting my spots well enough early on, but I did what I needed to do to keep us in it,” the right hander said. “I was hanging my pitches in the zone and they took advantage of it and it showed on the scoreboard. Coach was telling me to bare down and hit my spots and I went from there, buckling down before we started using our bats.”
Morse’s Jackson Walker rounds third base as Morse coach Niko Ruiz (9) waves him home during the first inning of Monday’s high school baseball against Mt. Ararat. (Eric Maxim / The Times Record)
Mt. Ararat managed a run in the third after a lead-off double by catcher Ryan Robertson to cut the lead to 7-5 heading to the fourth.
In the decisive inning, the Eagles sent 13 batters to the plate, scoring seven runs on just two hits, collecting five walks and were beneficiaries of four Morse errors.
“We need to play a full seven innings,” Ruiz said. “You can come out and score seven runs, but if you let them back in the game, they are the type of team that will tear you apart.”
Leading 12-7, Mt. Ararat sent seven more hitters to the plate in the fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run triple by Tobin before a Robertson RBI single gave the Eagles the win via the mercy rule.
“It felt good to get it, it didn’t feel like anything hit the bat,” Tobin said about his three-bagger.
Mt. Ararat finished with 11 hits, led by Tobin’s three knocks. Austin Damon and Robertson each had two hits apiece in the win. Mitchell and Hunter Lohr finished with four and three RBI’s, respectively, and second baseman Trey Booty reached base four times with three walks and was hit by a pitch, scoring two runs.
“We’ve been really harping on these guys about their approach at the plate, ‘swing at pitches you can hit,'” Chase said. “Preaching ‘be patient and get a pitch you can hit and put a good swing on it.’ I think today that was definitely a positive.”
Tobin earned the win, scattering six hits, striking out six, walking two and hit a batter. Ben Freeman recorded three strikeouts while giving up one hit in one inning of work for the Eagles.
Cahill collected three hits for Morse, while Knowlton and Magliozzi each scored two runs in the loss.
Morse’s Ty Knowlton (3) slides home safely as the ball gets away from Mt. Ararat catch Ryan Robertson during the first inning of Monday’s high school baseball game played at Bowdoin College. (Eric Maxim / The TImes Record)
“I’m proud of the guys. They came out and battled way better than last game,” Ruiz said in reference to a 13-3 loss to the Eagles in April. “Hats off to them, they’re a good team. We can hang with anybody, we just need to play a full game.”
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