Bonny Eagle 4

Gorham 3

On paper, it looked like the Gorham Rams had a good chance to beat the Bonny Eagle Scots, winners of just one game last season, when the two teams squared off last week.

But as the old sports clicha goes, that’s why they play the games.

The Scots’ Brent Sawyer scored from second on a throwing error in the bottom of the seventh to give Bonny Eagle a 4-3 win over Gorham Saturday in Standish. The win was the second of the season for the Scots, doubling their total of last year.

The Scots entered the bottom of the seventh with the score tied 3-3. Sawyer led off the inning with a single. That led Gorham coach Rocky Myers to pull starter Jamal Mustafa in favor of the left-handed Ben Smart. Smart then walked Joe Davis on a 3-1 pitch to give the Scots two runners on with no one out for Josh Ruby. Bonny Eagle coach Marc Sawyer opted not to bunt.

“I understand in that situation that the conventional thing is to bunt the guys over,” Sawyer said. “Honestly, here’s what happened: I believed in (Ruby). I believe he is a great hitter and good things were going to happen. He had a great spring, he had a great week last week and I just made a decision. Win, lose or draw, I was going to allow my kids an opportunity to win the game. Baseball is a numbers game and statistically the bunt was the thing to do. But sometimes you have to trust your gut and your instinct and my instinct was to get the kid an at bat. And he put the ball in play.”

Ruby fell behind 0-2. He battled back to even the count at 2-2. After fouling off a couple of pitches, Ruby bounced one back to the mound. Smart turned to throw to second base, but Rams shortstop Joel Mundy couldn’t track down the throw. Sawyer, who had been on second, was waved home. Mundy’s throw was a little high and the tag from Jon Dahms was too late and the Scots walked off with the win.

“I’m happy for our guys grinding it out and finding ways to win,” Coach Sawyer said. “I just told the guys this game shows what they’ve done in the preseason. They’ve come here every morning and they work hard. They were here at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. during vacation when they could have been doing other things. They were here on game day at 9 a.m. hitting inside. These guys have really made a commitment to be successful.”

Earlier in the game, Bonny Eagle took the lead with a pair of runs in the second. Brent Sawyer led off that inning with a ground ball to short that was mishandled. Davis followed that up with a triple over the right fielder’s head to score Sawyer. Two batters later, Nick Winslow hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Davis from third.

Meanwhile, the Rams were threatening in every inning. In the first, they stranded a runner at first. In the second, Ryan McMullen was left in scoring position. In the third, Gorham had runners at first and second but couldn’t score. In the fourth, a potential rally was ended when Nick Gowen was picked off second base.

The Rams finally got on the board in the fifth. Alex Libby got things started with a double. David Warren then blooped one to second. The Scots threw to first for the force but an error allowed Libby to score and Warren to reach third. Gorham tied the game a couple of batters later when Dahms hit a sac fly to right. The Rams took the lead when Nate Sturgis doubled in Mundy from second. But that was all they could muster as Bonny Eagle pitchers Kevin Moskevich and John Ames pitched out of trouble for the most part.

“It could have been nice if we could have piled on,” said Gorham coach Rocky Myers. “We obviously needed a couple of more runs.”

“Kevin gave me five strong innings,” Sawyer said. “Then John Ames came off the bench providing senior leadership. John’s been begging for the ball for a week now he keeps saying ‘give me the ball and let me see what I can do.’ He came in and gave us just a solid performance.”

Now trailing, the Scots needed a spark in the bottom of the inning. Ruby led off and reached on an error. Two batters later, Coach Sawyer decided to call Ryan Nason back to the bench for a pinch hitter. Casey McKague stepped in and provided that needed spark with a long RBI single to tie the game.

“Casey McKague just off the plane last night from Costa Rica and he gave us a big hit,” said Coach Sawyer. “That was a big pick me up. That RBI single to tie the game back up, it’s good stuff. That’s a senior with experience wanting to do well.”

McKague’s single allowed the Scots to walk off with the win in the seventh.

Gorham will start the year at 1-1. They were scheduled to take on Deering on April 29.

“(Bonny Eagle is) a good team,” Myers said. “Their coach is a good young coach. He takes care of business. That’s a nice team. It’s high school baseball. They made less high school mistakes than we did. They had a few mistakes in the early part that I thought we could capitalize on and we didn’t. They made every play and it was a good game.”

Bonny Eagle starts at 2-0 and they were scheduled to face Sanford on Tuesday.

“Great start to the year,” said Coach Sawyer. As I have said, we aren’t going to talk about the past or anything else. All we’re going to think about is the future. We just hope to keep it rolling, keep the success going and keep playing fundamental baseball. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that.”