DIXFIELD — “I don’t know if it was Friday the 13th or what it was, but before long we were going to get that break and finally we got one.”
That’s what Dirigo baseball coach Ryan Palmer had to say after his team’s wacky 4-3 victory in nine innings against Telstar on Friday.
The Cougar hitters made solid contact all day, but more often than not the ball found the glove of a Rebel fielder. Then Bryce Whittemore stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and hit it over the head of center fielder Hunter Williamson to drive in Cam Turner and lift the home team to victory at Harlow Park.
“My dad’s been telling all game, and probably yelling at me for it because I don’t like to swing at first pitch, but he told me first pitch, be ready for it, swing at it,” Whittemore said, talking about Dirigo assistant Dana Whittemore. “I knew (the pitcher) was probably coming with a fastball, and that’s exactly what I got. So I actually listened to (my dad) and swang, and I guess he was right. I should probably listen to him a little more often.”
That was Whittemore’s first hit of the game, after twice grounding back to Telstar starter Tanner Wheeler, as well as striking out and popping out to continue his year-long struggles at the plate. He called breaking out of that slump with the game-winning extra-base hit “the best feeling.”
Whittemore wasn’t the only Dirigo (5-4) hitter to struggle against Wheeler, who pitched eight innings and gave up just five hits while striking out six.
“He was throwing gas. He was throwing really hard,” Telstar (3-6) coach John Eliot said of Wheeler. “I thought it was really tough for some of their batters to catch up onto his fastball. When he’s on like that he can be untouchable.”
“I thought Tanner Wheeler threw a hell of a game and he deserved to win,” Palmer said.
Wheeler made life difficult for Cougar hitters, but he also made things difficult for himself as well, walking six batters and hitting four more. Eliot said he didn’t think Wheeler’s breaking pitch was working as well as his fastball was.
One of those walks led to the first run of the game, in the bottom of the third. Gus Brown and Riley Robinson hit a pair of one-out infield singles, and Cooper Chiasson drew a full-count walk. Wheeler struck out Turner looking for a second out, but then Chase Thebarge hit into a fielding error that scored a run.
The Rebels got the run back in next half-inning, with the bottom of the batting order coming through. A Fabian Corriveau single, a walk and a throwing error on a bunt by the pitcher Turner loaded the bases with one out. No. 9 hitter Boston Ludden grounded into what looked like a possible inning-ending double play, but he beat the throw to first to bring a run home.
Wheeler hit Gavin Arsenault with a pitch in the bottom of the fourth, then Brown made him pay with a double to make it 2-1 Dirigo.
Again the Rebels tied it back up immediately. Wheeler led off with a single, then moved around the bases on a steal and wild pitch. Two batters later Reggie Westleigh drove him in with another single.
Dirigo wasted runners at third in each of the next two innings. In the fifth, Turner walked and moved to second on a wild pitch. He then stole third, and tried to make it home when Westleigh’s throw from his catcher’s spot went wide, but Ludden at third gunned him down for the third out.
The Cougars loaded the bases in the sixth on a pair of hit batters and a walk, but Arsenault grounded out to Wheeler for the final out of the frame. It was the fifth of six defensive assists for the pitcher.
Those missed opportunties came back to haunt Dirigo in the top of the ninth. Arsenault, the third Cougar pitcher after Turner and Luke Lueders, got two quick outs before a grounder went under Chiasson’s glove at second. Williamson and Westleigh then came through with two-out singles to drive in Josh Eliot with the go-ahead run. Robinson came on in relief of Arsenault to record the final out.
The Rebels made a costly error of their own in the bottom half. Eliot couldn’t corral a lead-off grounder from Chiasson, who then advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw from Wheeler, then to third on Turner’s groundout back to the pitcher. Thebarge brought home the game-tying run on a sacrifice grounder that could have been the final out of the game if not for Telstar’s miscues.
“Defensive errors cost you,” Coach Eliot said. “Rule of two, I tell them. If you get more than two errors you’re lucky if you win, and we had three.
“We let them back into it. They’re a good ball club.”
Robinson pitched the rest of the way for Dirigo and retired all seven batters he faced, including three strikeouts and two defensive assists.
“He’s got basically the two fastbals that he throws, and he came out there and did what he needed to do,” Whittemore, the catcher, said of Robinson, who returned to baseball after not playing since eighth grade. “I think he’s done that in all of the sports he’s ever played. He consistently comes up in the clutch.”
Wheeler made it through eight innings — including a final inning that saw him intentionally walk two batters to get a force out that came at the plate — but his pitch count was rising and Eliot said he “didn’t want to burn his arm out.”
Palmer said he thought Wheeler deserved to win the game. He didn’t get a chance to finish waht he started, though. Instead, Ludden took over in the ninth inning and walked Turner on a full-count before striking out Thebarge. Then Whittemore stepped to the plate.
“We’ve won five games now, and in all five wins I’ve said the same thing: I don’t care how they come or what happens, a win is a win,” Palmer said.
Eliot could only lament about what could have been for his team, which is currently on the outside looking in for a Class C South postseason berth.
“It’s always a tough game when you come up to Dirigo. I was hoping to get this one though,” Eliot said. “Even though we were on the losing end I think that was one of our best games of the year.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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