LISBON — A lot of times in the game of baseball, it’s all about making the most of your opportunities. Monday’s Mountain Valley Conference clash between Lisbon and Winthrop was no different.
The Greyhounds took advantage of three first inning walks and stole an unearned run in the fourth to slip past the Ramblers, 2-1 in high school baseball action.
“It was a well played game all around today,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “We made enough plays today to win. We could have had things go the other way if we didn’t come with some of those good plays today.”
In a game where runs were scarce, Winthrop had its chances, leaving at least one runner on base every inning, totaling nine left on base for the game.
Winthrop got its leadoff hitter Jackson Ladd on base in the top of the first, but starter Lucas Francis got a pop out and a pair of strikeouts of the next two hitters, stranding Ladd at second.
Lisbon struck first in the home half, taking advantage of Winthrop starter Ryan Baird’s wildness. The sophomore opened the game throwing eight straight balls, putting runners on first and second. After Francis flew out to right to move the runners up, Nick Austin walked to load the bases. Sean Scott followed with comebacker to the mound, but Winthrop catcher Morgan Bellemare could not handle Baird’s throw cleanly and Noah Austin scampered across the plate for the run.
Baird settled down, getting the next two hitters to hit the ball back to him on the mound and Lisbon stranded three.
Winthrop struck back in the second. Following a leadoff single by Cameron Gaghan, the second baseman came around to score after his second steal of the inning drew a throw to third base where the ball went high into left field, scoring the run. Francis worked around a walk and another hit with two strikeouts and getting Ladd to fly out to right to end the threat.
“I thought our kids battled at the plate against a good pitcher,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “We fouled a lot of pitches off, driving his pitch count up, but we just couldn’t get that key hit when we needed it. Props to them for making the plays.”
Francis continued to battle for the Greyhounds (13-2) over the next two innings. In the fourth, a one-out walk and a throwing error on a pickoff attempt moved pinch runner Jared McLaughlin to second. Francis bared down, striking out Bellemare and Maguire Anaszewski to end the frame.
“That’s what they do. They come up and foul off a lot of pitches,” Ridley said. “Their approach, like a lot of us coaches try to do with good pitchers, is make them throw a lot of pitches, get that pitch count up early.”
Still tied in the bottom half of the fourth, Cole Bolduc knocked a one-out single for Lisbon. Bolduc appeared to be caught leaning towards second, but the throw to first went wide, and the centerfielder moved up to second base. Two pitches later, Bolduc sprinted to third and was safe when the throw was errant, popping up and running home, ahead of the throw from left field, putting the Greyhounds up, 2-1.
“When we have runners on second base, my good runners know if they’re not being held on and can get a good jump, steal third,” Ridley said. “Bolduc did, and made them throw and made something happen. He did a nice job with that.”
Francis started the fifth, giving up a one-out single to Greg Fay, and Baird reached on an error. Ridley lifted Francis at that point, after the righty had thrown 110 pitches.
Franics threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and three walks, while striking out seven Ramblers (9-7).
The skipper turned to Sean Scott to get out of the jam. The senior came in and after a sacrifice fly moved the runners up, Scott got Gaghan looking at strike three to end the inning.
“I was trying not to throw too many fastballs, I don’t want them guessing my pitches,” Scott said, having kept the last two hitters of the inning off balance.
Meanwhile, Baird had settled down, allowing just a fifth inning triple to Noah Austin, retiring eight of the last nine batters he faced.
“Ryan had a tough first inning where he threw a lot of pitches,” Fortin said. “He had a tough outing last time out and we had to take him out in the first inning. Today he settled down and this was a good confidence game for him, he’s a solid player.”
“He’s good. He’s tough with nice velocity and a good curve ball,” Ridley added. “He’ll be tough for them the next couple of years.”
“We were getting decent contact with the ball, but a lot of times it was right at them, it was a little frustrating,” Scott said.
Despite the loss, Baird felt good about bouncing back from his last outing to a solid showing on Monday.
“Last game I realized I didn’t do very well against Mountain Valley,” Baird said. “I focused a lot more before the game today, which I didn’t last time.”
Baird tossed six innings, not walking another batter after the first, allowing just three hits, while striking out two in the loss.
“I was just trying to locate my pitches and keep it in against some of their better hitters like Lucas and number five (Noah Austin),” Baird added.
Scott stranded a runner on third in the sixth after a leadoff double by Sam Figueroa by striking out the final two hitters of the frame.
Winthrop got a one-out walk and a runner to second in the seventh, but Scott once again shut the door on any threat with the help of a couple of nice defensive plays at first base by Levi Levesque.
“There were some nice plays defensively for us today,” Ridley said. “Levi is a natural first basemen and came up with a couple of big plays in the last inning.
Scott pitched the final 2 2/3 innings for the save, allowing one hit, one walk and striking out four.
Lisbon travels to Hall-Dale on Wednesday at 3 p.m. for its regular season finale, while the Ramblers finish 9-7 and await the final Heal Point standings for Class C South for a possible playoff spot.
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