LEWISTON — Pastime Club has represented Lewiston baseball splendidly at the state and regional level for the past several years.
In order for the traditional Zone 3 American Legion power to maintain that status this summer, the young local contingent will need substantial help from some of the surrounding schools.
So far, so good. R.J. Sargent of Lisbon and Caleb Dostie of St. Dom’s each drove in two runs to highlight a six-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning Saturday afternoon, pushing Pastime to a 7-5 victory over William J. Rogers Post 153 of Auburn and a doubleheader split at Deschenes Field.
“We had to buckle down and get some runs going,” said Sargent, who entered the game in the fifth inning and plated Colby Bilodeau and Kyle Bourget with a windblown double to the wall in straightaway center field. “That was my favorite pitch. It was a little low, right down the middle. It was one of those you’ve just got to unload on.”
After Mike Wong’s third hit of the twin bill made it 5-4, Dostie shot a seeing-eye single between third base and shortstop and put Pastime (3-2) in front.
“It was outside, so it was a good pitch to hit that way,” the left-handed-batting Dostie said.
Carter Chabot capped the comeback with an RBI double.
Another Lisbon product — Ryan Riordan, a postgraduate who pitched for Oak Hill in 2013 — picked up the win with two innings of relief.
“When our backs were to the wall, we were able to get some guys on base and get them in, which was good,” Pastime coach Dave Jordan said. “Up to that point I think it had been a fairly frustrating day for us.”
Nate Pushard and Mike Hammond joined forces for a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts to provide the backbone for Rogers’ 5-3 triumph in the morning game.
It was the first win in three tries for Post 153, which previously gave away a five-run lead in an 11-10 loss to Brunswick.
“We’ve made big strides. We’ve had a tough start to the season, made some mental mistakes,” Rogers coach Troy Crane said. “We’re trying to work together to work together, to learn that we can’t do this by ourselves.”
Rogers starter Lew Jensen didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning of Game 2. He was helped by inning-ending double plays, each begun by Simpson at third base, in the second and third.
RBI groundouts by Drew Lashua and John Simpson and a Pushard single staked Jensen to a 3-0 lead at that checkpoint. It grew to 4-0 when Pushard cranked a one-out wall double and later scored on a passed ball in the fourth.
Wong doubled and scored on a hit by Dostie, both with two outs, in the Pastime fifth. But Rogers answered when Brandon Knapp was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on another Simpson bounce out for a seemingly comfortable 5-1 lead.
Jensen chalked up the first out of the sixth before singles by Bilodeau and Bourget ended his day. Pastime roughed up Jensen and relievers Simpson and Hammond for six hits in the inning — more than half its total of 11 in the two games.
“Llewellyn threw a great game. We had a (pitch count) number in our head, he hit that number and we made the change,” Crane said. “We struggled a little bit after that. We made some mistakes in the field. We’ll work on it. We’ll get better.”
Pastime nearly clawed all the way back in the opener, as well.
Down 5-1 with one out in the seventh, Poulin reached on an error. Walks by Sargent and Matt Keaney brought the potential tying run to the plate with Wong and Dostie in the wings.
Wong bounced into a fielder’s choice to drive in a run. Sargent then scored on a wild pitch, but Hammond struck out Dostie to end it.
“They made some good plays and some good pitches, and maybe we didn’t swing at as many pitches as we should have,” Jordan said. “We’ve got a mixture of youth and veterans. We have one postgrad and one eighth-grader. For the most part we’ve played well despite the fact that we haven’t had a lot of time together.”
Rogers scored three runs in the first against Wong. Drew Lashua, who reached base in all four of his plate appearances, delivered an RBI single. Jensen knocked in a pair with his base hit.
Pastime plated one when Austin Wing grounded into a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the frame, but the hosts left two aboard. It was their best hope against Pushard, who retired eight consecutive batters toward the conclusion of his six-inning stint.
Tyler Blanchard scored after a leadoff triple in the fourth. Brandon Varney singled and scored in the fifth.
Varney had three hits, four runs and five stolen bases on the day. He also worked all 13 innings behind the plate. Rogers was 17-for-19 in the steals category.
“You know how many Edward Little High School had all year? Eight,” Crane said. “It’s fun. That’s kind of our focus.”
Wong and Dostie were a combined 4-for-6 in the nightcap, scoring three runs and driving in four from No. 1 and No. 2 in the order.
Lisbon’s Bourget allowed only four hits through five innings before handing over to Riordan.
“Kyle and Ryan did a really good job keeping us in the second game,” Sargent said. “It was a phenomenal effort by everyone, though.”
Bessey Motors sweeps
PARIS — Riley Chickering only allowed one hit in five innings of work in Bessey Motors’ 8-0 victory over Smith-Tobey in the first game of a Legion doubleheader Saturday. Nick Attaliades-Ryan led Bessey Motors offense with a two run triple.Bessey Motors opened the game up in the second inning with four runs coming across in the second inning.
In the second game, Bessey Motors recorded another shutout with a 5-0 victory over Smith-Tobey. Mitch Lorenz had a two run triple of his own in the first inning. Matt Smith had two hits in the game including a double. The two wins on the day improves Bessey Motors record to 3-0 while Smith-Tobey drops to 0-4.
Tri-Town doubles up
RUMFORD — Tri Town swept an American Legion doubleheader with Locke Mills Saturday.
In the first game, Tri Town squeaked out a 6-4 victory on the bat of Kaleb Bridgham who had a home run and a triple. Luke Johnson also had a home run for Tri Town. Billy Bickford doubled in the win.
For Locke Mills, Tyler Frost had three hits and Logan Bartlett added two.
In the second game, Tri Town cruised to a 13-3 victory as Bridgham had another home run. Luke Johnson picked up the victory on the mound and had a double. Dan Bernier and Shawn Murphy also had doubles. Chad Snowman tripled and doubled for Locke Mills, while teammate Anthony Todd also had a two bagger.
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