AUBURN — Seventh-seeded Winthrop used the small ball to defeat the defending Class C State champions St. Dom’s, 8-6, in a Western Class C quarterfinal Thursday afternoon.
“We are ecstatic,” said Winthrop head coach Marc Fortin. “ We’ve waited for this for a long time. St. Dom’s has been our bane and finally to beat them. Its an incredible feeling. We wanted to run, we wanted to bunt, we wanted to play their game.”
Ramblers starting pitcher Tyler Reeve went the distance, allowing six runs on six hits and striking out five Saints.
“It feels amazing. I’ve always wanted to beat St. Dom’s,” Tyler Reeves said. “In my four years this has been the best game I’ve ever played. Not because I won (on the mound), but because we won as playing as a team.”
Winthrop started the game with a lead-off walk by Jared Hanson, and Drew Stratton followed that up with a bunt single down the first-base line to beat out a throw at first. Tyler Stockford would drive them both in with a double.
“It was supposed to be (a sacrifice bunt),” Stratton said of his bunt single. “I am quick and I just beat the throw.”
The first inning was the end of Saints starter Jim Theriault’s afternoon on the mound as Zach Johnson came in relief to start the second.
The Ramblers would score a run in the top half of second and third innings to open up their lead to 4-0.
“We thought we were in control. We were up 4-0 in the third inning,” Fortin said. “Then the wheels kind of came off where they took the lead and we regrouped.”
St. Dom’s needed the bottom third of the lineup to get its rally going.
Caleb Dostie was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice, but Johnson reached first base.
Johnson would steal second and would come around on Joe Bryant’s RBI single. Drew Gosselin drove in Bryant with an RBI single of his own. Matt Roy drove in a run and the Saints drew two walks, which brought home two runners to take the 5-4 lead after three innings.
“We fought back, but we didn’t execute,” said St. Dom’s head coach Bob Blackman. “We couldn’t nail it down, we couldn’t stop the bleeding, but we didn’t execute – both offensively, defensively — and on the mound.”
This time the Winthrop players didn’t allow the bad inning to turn into two bad innings.
“We always have had some bad innings all year, but the key is not to get down from it,” Stratton said. “Today we decided not to get down from it.”
After a scoreless fourth inning, Joe Bryant came in relief for Johnson in the fifth after Johnson went three innings, giving up two runs. The Ramblers tied the contest up when Hansen scored after starting the inning with a walk.
Stratton came around to retake the lead 6-5 on a Tyler Foster single, but Foster recorded the second out trying to reach second.
“We played them tough in the first game and we didn’t make the plays and that’s why we lost.,” Fortin said.
Blackman had one reason why he pulled the plug on Johnson.
“Saturday,” Blackman said. “We felt all three of our pitchers were capable to get us to the next game, and we wanted to use all three of them Saturday.”
The Saints would capitalize on a couple Viking errors which led to one run when Foster threw the ball into left field trying to catch the Saints stealing.
The bottom third of Winthrop’s lineup would give the Ramblers the lead for good in the sixth. Ben Allen came around on Zack Steele’s RBI double. Steele would come around on Stratton’s RBI single, but Matt Sekerak was ruled out coming home as the third base umpire said Sekerak didn’t touch third base.
“I thought that missed (call) of touching the bag was too close to make that call,” Fortin said. “I looked at that third base umpire and he wasn’t watching it.”
Steele would make two defensive plays in the seventh to prevent a Saints’ last-inning rally.
The Ramblers will take on Telstar in the Western Maine Class C semifinals Saturday.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
