AUGUSTA — Gayton Post 31 coach Todd Cifelli may have worn a rut in the floor of the visitors’ dugout at Morton Field on Friday had it not been cast in concrete.

He might have anyway.

The scenario? Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, one out and Bessey Motors’ Travis Linehan at the plate. Earlier in the game, the lefty had lofted a seemingly harmless fly ball over the short porch in right field for a solo home run, and the breeze had only strengthened.

“The guys were relaxed. We had Travis up and the wind was blowing,” Bessey Motors coach Shane Slicer said. “If he hits a pop fly to right, the game has a whole different complexion. I saw Todd pacing back and forth there a bit. At that point, what did we have to lose? We just wanted to have some fun.”

After a ball, two strikes and a a foul ball on offerings from relief pitcher Alex Parker, Linehan ripped an inside pitch toward first base. Jeff Keene bobbled the ball but snagged it, and beat Linehan to the bag with a slide for the second out.

One run scored, but Gayton escaped the major damage it feared, and held on to defeat Bessey Motors for the fourth time this season, this time by a count of 9-4 in the American Legion baseball state tournament.

“With that 300-foot fence, and the way the ball’s been flying out to right-center, you almost want to try and make yourself grand-slam proof,” Cifelli said. “If you can be up by more than four, you feel a bit safer.”

Parker entered the game after Luke Cote scattered nine hits and allowed three runs (two earned) over seven innings. A softer-throwing pitcher with a lot of movement on the ball, Parker battled through an error and a seeing-eye single in the eighth without allowing a run, but again ran into trouble in the ninth. A pair of singles sandwiched a hit-by-pitch to load the bases for Linehan.

“I’ve been closing most of the week,” Parker said. “I trust our defense. It’s not a Bessey-Gayton game without that kind of intensity at the end.”

After Linehan’s grounder, Parker forced Jordan Croteau to ground to Cote at shortstop to end the rally, the game and Bessey Motors’ season.

“They were too good today,” Slicer said. “They just hit the ball too well, made us make some mistakes. It’s a tough lineup to get through.”

The Gayton bats fired up early. The first six players to stand in reached base on a hit, with Parker’s RBI double the only extra-base rap. Corbin Hyde drove in two with a single, and then was caught stealing. Bessey starter Brandon Campbell avoided more damage when he got Chris Madden to pop to third base with the bases loaded.

“The first two games of the tournament, we got down in the first couple of innings,” Parker said. “It was good to be able to put a crooked number up on the board early.”

After Bessey got one back in the bottom of the first, Gayton attacked Campbell again in the second. Parker, Mekae and Corbin Hyde and Scott Ouellette all scored to stretch the Gayton advantage to 7-1.

“It was a big tone-setter; we squared some balls up,” Cifelli said. “We kind of tailed off a bit at the end of the Augusta game, got a bit pooped. It was good to set the tone.”

Campbell settled down in the third and fourth, and Dylan Cox scampered home in the bottom of the fourth with an unearned to lift his team’s spirits.

Gayton squashed those hopes with a two-spot in the fifth, ultimately chasing Campbell. Slicer brought in Cody Hadley in relief, and Gayton never so much as sniffed another run. Hadley allowed a single to the third batter he faced, and was perfect from there, setting down 15 of the 16 he saw to stymie Gayton.

But the damage was done. Bessey scored another run in the sixth on Linehan’s solo blast to right, but couldn’t push anything else across. Bessey stranded 12 runners in nine innings.

“That’s more of a credit to their defense,” Slicer said. “We hit it hard, and they made the plays. We did look at some third strikes early on, but as Cote got a bit tired, we hit the ball pretty solid. Our outs, even with guys on base, were hard outs.”

That Cote lasted seven innings was a big lift for a tired Gayton pitching staff, which had to endure a 13-11 win and a 21-11 loss before Friday’s effort.

“What I first come back to is, we were starving for a quality start,” Cifelli said. “Cote gave up two earned runs, and he went deep in the game for us.”

Copy the Story Link