Friday, a pitcher with something to prove and a patient sophomore catcher keyed a late-innings rally, lifting the Knights to a thrilling 11-0 win over visiting Freeport.
“That’s been a strength of these guys all year,” Poland coach Mike Connor said. “They’ll take a mistake back into the dugout, and when they come back out, it’s gone. That’s something we’ve been talking about since Day 1. You can be talented on the field, but the team that can come out and overcome that is going to be a successful team.”
Catcher Jake Wiseman capped the rally in the bottom of the seventh inning, bouncing a belt-high fastball back through the box and over a leaping Freeport shortstop to plate pinch runner Austin Love from second base with the inning run.
“It was just right there, it was right there, and I hit it,” Wiseman said. “It was a fastball belt high, and I hit it.”
Sensing it might be the play to end the game, Wiseman turned when he got to first base.
“I was sprinting to first, and I was watching,” Wiseman said. “Once I got to first, I got there in plenty of time, I just watched it.”
Love crossed the plate, and he and the rest of the team rushed from the dugout to meet Wiseman at first.
“It was a big game for us, it was senior night,” relief pitcher Isaiah Dubois said. “We really wanted to put that game (against Cape Elizabeth) behind us and get this win. We wanted to keep our season alive and just get this win for the seniors.”
Dubois was a big part of that rally, from a defensive standpoint. He entered the game in the sixth inning. Starter Alex Biron gave up nine runs on 12 hits. Dubois allowed only a run and no hits in an inning and two-thirds.
“He came out against Cape on Wednesday and got rocked,” Connor said. “We went right back to him today and again, he just forgot about what happened on Wednesday and he got it done today.”
Trailing 9-4 in the sixth, Poland’s bats heated up in the bottom of the penultimate frame. Kaleb Banker singled, Rob Porter walked and Dubois singled against Freeport starter Caleb Rice. Biron walked to chase Rice, and the Falcons went to reliever Jack Davenport. The hard-throwing righty induced a single, a fielder’s choice and a fly out to end the inning, but the Knights pushed four runs home to pull within one.
Freeport pushed its lead back to two in the seventh without a base hit. With two outs, Caiden Shea walked, stole second and moved to third on a balk before scampering home on a throwing error. But Dubois got the next batter to strike out looking to end the inning, setting up the Knights’ seventh-inning heroics.
“I noticed they were struggling with the curve ball,” Dubois said. “I threw a lot of curves, and I think I only threw one fastball, and that kept them off balance and off speed.”
Friday’s game started as a slugfest. Davenport and Pete Lamagna drove doubles deep to the fence with the help of the gusting wind, and Bennett Hight cleared the fence with a three-run shot for a 4-0 Freeport lead in the first.
The Knights replied with two of their own, including an Adam Mocciola blast. Poland added another in the second before the Falcons replied in kind with three more in the third.
“It was one of those days, once it got up there, with the gusting wind, it just carried,” Connor said. “You could tell early it was going to be one of those days.”
Freeport answered Poland’s one run in the third with another in the fifth and another in the sixth to run the lead to 9-4.
“We’ve faced a lot of adversity this year, and we just need to keep moving forward,” Dubois said. “We’ve done pretty good at that and we never seem to quit. I wasn’t too worried about it. we always seem to come back somehow.”
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