AUBURN – Kendra Keene very well could have spent Tuesday night and much of Wednesday wondering, “what if?”
The Edward Little outfielder was at the plate with the bases loaded in the Red Eddies 3-2 loss to Deering Tuesday. She watched her chance to drive in the crucial runs taken away when the final out of the game came on a pick-off play at first.
“She never got the chance to finish the job,” said EL coach Gene Keene.
Wednesday, the circumstances were similar but there was a very different ending. Keene belted a three-run triple in the bottom of the seventh inning and then scored on a Deanna Maxim single to lift EL to a come-from-behind 8-7 win over Thornton Academy.
“I just put (Tuesday) behind me so I could focus on this game,” said Kendra.
Keene finished with two triples and four RBIs. Maxim had a pair of hits and two RBIs and Krista Wotherspoon had two hits, scored three and drove in one.
“Kendra Keene’s been our hottest hitter of late,” said Gene. “I think she’s got 12 hits in the last six games. We certainly had the right person up at the right time.”
It was a significant win for EL’s playoff hopes. EL was ranked 14th in the latest Western A standings, right behind Thornton. The top 12 teams make the tournament.
“It almost was a must win,” said Gene, whose team finishes the year with Bonny Eagle and Windham. Both teams are ahead of them in the standings. “When we’re a .500 or so team, we’ve got to beat the ones that are even with us or below us. We’ve been able to do that so far.”
Wednesday’s game, moved to Lakeview Field because of the wet conditions, appeared to be in the Trojans’ favor right up until the seventh. A three-run double by Jessica Lavoie and a two-run homer by Sara Rosario had helped put Thornton (5-9) ahead. In the seventh, EL got Christine Sasser and Cathy McKinney on with walks. Then Wotherspoon reached on an error. Keene followed with a shot to right. She could have tried for a home run but was held at third with none out.
“I just told myself to relax,” said Kendra. “If I had thought about (Tuesday), I don’t think I would have hit it. I just needed to relax and hit it.” Maxim followed with a bloop single to right, and Keene beat the throw home for the game-winner.
“They haven’t’ gotten a lot of breaks this year,” said Gene. “They’ve worked hard, and they deserve to win like this.”
Though EL had taken a 2-0 lead in the first on a Wotherspoon single and Keene triple, Thornton took a 5-2 lead in the second. Lavoie had the big blow with a bases loaded double.
EL got one back on a Maxim RBI single in the third, but Rosario’s homer in the fifth padded the lead. Wotherspoon tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning to keep EL within reach, 7-4. Jen Verrill came on in relief of Brittany Short in the fifth and allowed just one hit in three innings for the win.
“We pecked away,” said Gene. “We got the third one, and we got the fourth one. They hung in there.”
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