PARIS — Two road trips. Two come-from-behind, payback victories. One more regular-season game with its top three pitchers available and a shot at the top seed in the Class A East baseball tournament.
The week couldn’t have gone much better for Edward Little if the Red Eddies had scripted it. EL shed the stigma of a six-error April debacle with a 5-2 victory Friday afternoon over Oxford Hills at Gouin Athletic Complex.
Damien St. Pierre pitched three innings of one-hit, shutout relief to notch the win. That’s four victories against only one earned run all season for the sophomore.
Junior Austin Cox’s single put EL (12-3) ahead to stay in a four-run fifth inning. EL has won nine consecutive games and 11 of 12 since its 4-2 loss to Oxford Hills.
“Once we got the first one, we knew we could do special things this year,” Cox said. “We want to make it the best year for these seniors. They’ve been working for it a long time.”
EL will travel to Bangor on Monday for a game that was washed away by Thursday’s thunderstorms. The winner clinches the No. 1 spot in the playoff field.
In addition to St. Pierre, Lew Jensen, who started Friday, and Jarod Plourde, who nailed down the save with a 1-2-3 seventh, all are eligible to throw. The Eddies also avenged an early-season loss to Mt. Blue this week, rallying from a 4-0 deficit to chalk up a 12-5 rout.
“We know we’re decent, but we still have room to improve,” St. Pierre said.
Once again, the Eddies bounced back from their one bad inning.
Three errors and an RBI single by Blake Slicer put Oxford Hills in front, 2-1, in the third. The Vikings (9-6) gave it back, times two, with three walks, an error, a wild pitch and a passed ball in the fifth.
“That was payback, I guess. It was a pretty good baseball game,” Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer said. “We didn’t defend that inning, and we didn’t throw strikes that inning. Bottom line is they pitched pretty well and we left guys stranded.”
Oxford Hills left six on base, five in scoring position.
Cox, who didn’t play last year as a sophomore and missed the first meeting with Oxford Hills, cashed in after Brandon Knapp’s leadoff single and a walk to Luke Sterling. After Slicer’s wild pitch advanced them to second and third, Cox roped a 2-0 pitch to right center.
“It was a fastball up and away,” Cox said. “That’s kind of my sweet spot to drive it the other way.”
Drew Lashua and Plourde drew walks to load the bases before Jensen greeted reliever Will Frank with a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 lead.
Frank got Elijah Roe, who singled and doubled in his first two at-bats, to pop out. Brandon Varney’s two-out grounder produced a throwing error, however, plating Lashua.
“It was a nice playoff atmosphere,” EL coach Dave Jordan said. “With that atmosphere, I thought both teams made a few mistakes here and there. Overall I thought the pitching was pretty good.”
Jensen struck out four. Two of the four hits he allowed were infield singles.
St. Pierre walked Jake Spinhirn and Brady LaFrance to get into a jam in the fifth, but grounders to Lashua at second and Roe at first helped him escape. He had both mound wins this week.
“Give it to my infield. They did it,” St. Pierre said.
“He comes in, hits his spots and lets his defense do the job,” Jordan echoed. “He’s done a great job this year for us. Phenomenal work.”
Lashua and Roe delivered again in the sixth, combining for an inning-ending double play. Plourde fanned two in the seventh.
Blake Slicer was 2-for-4 for Oxford Hills, which has lost five of six after an 8-1 start.
“That’s a good team. They’re on a roll. We’re competing. We’re one hit away from winning a baseball game,” Shane Slicer said. “We can’t put the whole thing together. Either we can’t hit or we boot the hell out of it or our pitching struggles. We can’t get the whole package.”
Cox scored on a walk, a stolen base and two errors to give EL a 1-0 lead in the third.
The disappointing bottom half of that frame didn’t crush the Eddies’ spirits.
“We’ve been getting better at that as the season has gone on,” Jordan said. “It’s one of those things where the boys are believing that they have a lot of potential if they leave what’s gone behind them and go on to the next pitch.”
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