MONMOUTH — Right guy at the plate. Right guy on the mound.
Ben Allen’s two-run, two-out, opposite-field single broke a tie in the top of the seventh inning Monday, completing Winthrop’s rally to a 4-2 victory over Monmouth in the Ramblers’ MVC baseball opener at Chick Field.
Pinch hitter Bennett Brooks’ single, also to right field, tied the game and set up Allen’s heroics at the expense of Monmouth reliever Gage Cote. Winthrop had only two hits entering the seventh.
“In that situation, I definitely just want to put it in play and give everybody a chance to make something happen,” Allen said. “I got a good pitch to hit, and it happened to be on the outside, and I’m glad I was able to take it to right. Good pitch, good situation. It worked out well.”
It made a winner of Matt Sekerak, who went the distance for his first win in 23 months.
Don’t call it a comeback, though. Sekerak was a conference all-star in soccer and basketball this year since recovering from the torn ACL he suffered in February 2014, erasing his junior baseball campaign. He allowed three hits and no earned runs, struck out three, and walked two.
“Better than I expected,” Sekerak said. “I wasn’t sure how many innings I was going to be able to go. Thankfully I was able to get through the first three innings with a pretty low pitch count. I was able to really stretch out the game and complete it.”
Sekerak retired the first 11 Mustangs before Monmouth (1-1) scratched out a run in the fourth inning and another in the sixth, putting itself on the cusp of another victory over an MVC preseason favorite.
Hunter Richardson beat out a chopper to third base, took second on the late, errant throw, and scored on Jariah Caissie’s single to left-center field in the fourth.
Cote, a junior transfer from Lewiston, put on a bunting and base running clinic to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth. He legged out the single with ease, stole second and third and scampered home on a wild throw.
“I didn’t have to call it,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said of the bunt. “We’re learning each other. You can’t coach speed. It’s hard to defend it, and he’s got it.”
The run gave Cote, who took over on the hill for Chandler Harris (two hits, one run, three strikeouts, three walks) to start the sixth, a chance to close it out. He struck out Ben Caprara looking before plunking Antonio Meucci with the next offering.
Jacob Hickey’s two-strike grounder took a nasty hop past the second baseman, leaving Hickey and pinch Matt Ingram safe to set the table for Brooks.
Cote got Cabot Lancaster on a slow roller back to the mound for the second out, freezing the runners, but Allen — who scored Winthrop’s first run on a Sekerak double in the fourth — delivered the fateful line drive.
“Could you ask for a more clutch guy?” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “He’s all business this year. He’s the captain of our club. You couldn’t ask for a better guy to come up to the plate at that point.”
Mat Foulke walked during a rain squall with two out in the seventh, but Sekerak lured Avery Pomerleau into a pedestrian grounder up the middle and a fielder’s choice for the final out.
Sekerak threw 83 pitches, including only 25 through the first three frames. Harris also had a no-hitter going until Sekerak’s wind-blown double in the fourth.
“Matt threw very well for them. He works very quickly, and he hits that outside spot. We rolled balls over and popped balls up,” Palleschi said. “That was Chandler’s first varsity game and I thought he did a good job. He mixed in a few pitches.”
Winthrop played only two preseason scrimmages, hasn’t been on its home field even for a practice, and had its share of misadventures on this end of a six-mile bus trip in recent years.
“I think the biggest thing we’ve got to take away is we’ve struggled here,” Allen said. “To come here and get off to a good start after getting killed last year, 8-0, that was big for us.”
“The first time I came here and started coaching it was a JV game, and I didn’t know the relevance of the Monmouth-Winthrop matchup. I had parents in my face,” Fortin said. “I didn’t think it was that important. A win over your rival like this in the first game of the year, it’s a good start.”
Monmouth pulled off an opening-day upset at Dirigo on Friday.
“I’d be lying to you if I told you I thought 2-0 wouldn’t be better,” Palleschi said.
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