LEWISTON — American Legion playoff wins are nothing new for the kids in the Pastime dugout, but they are for the team’s coach.
Pastime delivered first-year coach Andrew Cessario his first playoff victory in a 13-10 victory over Rogers Post in the first round of the Zone 2 tournament on Tuesday. The Lewiston-based American Legion team advanced to the double-elimination portion of the tournament in Augusta as a result.
“These kids are battle-tested, I know I’m not,” Cessario said. “This is my first rodeo, but experience is a huge, huge factor. I tell my guys all the time that I’m most impressed with the way we battle back in games.”
The rival ball clubs combined for 25 hits and exchanged six-run innings. All nine innings featured at least one run.
Pastime jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning on RBIs by Mike Wong, Kyle Bourget and Matt Poulin, only to see Rogers Post respond with six in the top of the second inning. It wasn’t the first time Rogers Post has had a big inning against its rival as it put up five runs in the top of the first inning the last time the two teams met at Lewiston High School in the beginning of the season.
Rogers Post batted through the order in the second and plated four runs before surrendering an out. The first six batters reached base safely before Mike Hammond and Jarod Plourde recorded back-to-back sacrifice flys. Brandon Varney and Evan Raymond also delivered RBIs.
The visitors tacked on another run in the third to build a 7-3 lead, but it wouldn’t last. Pastime scored nine unanswered runs over the next four innings to take a 12-7 lead into the eighth.
“They had some huge hits when they had guys on base,” Rogers Post coach Dave Jordan said. “I thought we hit the ball well at times, especially in those middle innings, but we hit them right at people. Credit to them. They were able to make the plays. It really came down to a team that when the going got tough, I thought they did a great job of settling in and making plays and keeping us off the bases.”
At the heart of Pastime’s comeback was a six-run inning of its own in the fifth. It began with an RBI triple by Austin Wing to deep right-center that would have been the furthest hit of the game if not for his double to deep right in the third.
“He was the spark of that inning,” Cessario said. “He really was the spark plug to our offense today. He got us going, got a little bit of excitement in the dugout. He had a great game.”
Wing finished 3-for-3 with a walk, sac fly and two RBIs. He came a home run shy of the cycle.
“I was just seeing straight fastballs,” Wing said. “That’s all I was looking for was fastballs.”
RJ Sargant later came through with a two-run single with the bases loaded to tie the game at 7. An RBI groundout by Brock Belanger, followed by a two-run single to left by Wong with two outs gave Pastime a 12-7 lead. Pastime brought 10 batters to the plate in the inning.
Pastime added a run in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.
Rogers Post threatened late, scoring twice in the eighth to climb within 12-9 on RBIs from Austin Cox and Plourde. It added a run in the ninth with Lew Jensen’s third hit of the night, but Pastime reliever Gage Cote got Cox to pop out to first in foul territory to end the game.
For Jordan, who coached Pastime up until last year, the loss was bittersweet.
“I’m proud of them for winning, I like all those guys in that dugout and the coaches as well,” Jordan said. “And I’m very proud of my guys and our coaching staff for everything they’ve done in terms of battling. We were out of the playoffs at 5-5, finish the season winning seven of eight games. We’ve been down a number of games and battled back. Even at the end I don’t think there was a person in this park today that wanted to leave because they knew something was going to happen drama-wise.”
Kyle Bourget went eight innings to pick up the win on the mound for Pastime. He allowed nine runs on 12 hits, striking out four and walking two. He tossed 115 pitches.
Plourde suffered the loss, pitching five innings. He surrendered 10 runs on nine hits, striking out three and walking five. Tyler Blanchard and Brandon Varney pitched in relief.
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