FARMINGTON — Edward Little exploded for 12 runs in the middle innings to claim a 12-5 come-from-behind win over Mt. Blue on Tuesday afternoon at Hippach Field.
Falling behind, 4-0, after just two innings the Red Eddies (11-3) turned to left hander Damien St. Pierre for three innings of stellar relief and instantly went to work with the bats pounding out 11 hits to take a comfortable win.
“We struggled early and they capitalized,” Edward Little coach Dave Jordan said. “In the dugout, we talked about the game being a marathon and not a sprint and our guys started to put the bat on the ball.”
First, however, was the effort of St. Pierre, who entered the game when his team was in need of a shut down inning to stay in the game. St. Pierre gave them three innings of outstanding relief facing just 11 batters.
“My job was to come in and shut them down,” St. Pierre said. “I have a lot of trust in my defense, so I threw a lot of fastballs and let them make the plays.”
St. Pierre induced four ground ball outs, three infield pop-ups, a strikeout and a runner gunned down at third, trying to stretch a double into a triple.
“Damien came in and did what we needed,” Jordan said. “The defense played well and we were able to get back in the game against a very good team.”
Mt. Blue (7-7) appeared to be headed to another big win over a top ranked team — after beating Oxford Hills and Cony, recently — taking a 4-0 lead after two innings, paced by the hitting of Ryan Pratt, who managed singles in both innings and scored twice.
Slowly the Red Eddies started to rally in the third inning, eventually sending 10 batters to the plate. With two outs and runners at the corners, Edward Little still trailed by four runs when a pair of walks forced in a run and the momentum started to shift.
Lew Jensen smacked a two-run RBI single to left to narrow the Cougars lead to 4-3, just before Brandon Varney drove a bouncing ball towards short that gained speed as it bounced over Mt. Blue short stop Pratt’s head and into left for a base hit.
Varney’s singled scored a pair of runs completing Edward Little’s comeback bid with a 5-4 lead.
“We kept talking about, just see a good pitch and swing at it,” Jordan said.
Over the next two innings, Edward Little did just that scoring another seven runs to put the game out of reach, leading 12-5 after five innings.
“It’s been a roller coaster ride,” Mt. Blue coach Christian Boileau said. “Things fell apart on us and they got a couple of nice hits at the right time.”
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