AUBURN — Campbell Cassidy said a bit of luck had a hand in his game-winning triple.
Cassidy’s seventh-inning heroics allowed seventh-seeded Edward Little to escape with a 5-4 victory against 10th-ranked Camden Hills in a Class A North baseball first round game at Central Maine Community College on Tuesday. Edward Little (9-8) next faces second-ranked Oxford Hills (14-2) on Thursday.
The soft-spoken Cassidy was modest about his stunning triple.
“I was behind in the count at the start, so I was lucky (Camden Hills pitcher Hunter Bell) hung me one and I was able to get a good swing on it,” Cassidy said. “I wasn’t trying to do too much.
“You always got to be ready for the fastball because if you are thinking curveball then you are going to be behind the fastball. I was just trying to see it out of his hand and I was lucky to see it.”
Brody Keefe and Braden Paradie were holed up at first and second base, respectively, when Cassidy blasted his two-run triple to right field, sending Keefe and Paradis home with the winning runs.
“(Cassidy) really tagged it,” Edward Little coach Dave Jordan said. “He came up in a big spot. He seemed very relaxed up there and focused on what he needed to do. He just got a good contact on the ball. That’s all you can do in a situation like that — try to hit the ball hard.”
Camden Hills coach Ben Rollins was not surprised by Cassidy’s triple.
“Edward Little is a great team,” Rollins said. “They put the work in, so we knew it was going to be a battle. That’s baseball. You’ve got to play for the final out. Anything can happen. That’s the beautiful thing about it.
“Not surprised. Hurt, yes. We are very aware that anything can happen here. I challenged them to play their best game of the year — and I think we did. Obviously, we came up a little bit short at the end. But I am proud of my guys.”
Camden Hills (7-10) showed it was no pushover and the Windjammers proved that in the top of the first inning, scoring scored two runs on RBI singles by Hunter Norton and Lucas Moody.
The Red Eddies (9-8) responded with two runs in the bottom of the first against Bell thanks to a two-run single by Kamden Masselli to tie the game at 2-2.
Camden Hills struck again with another two runs in the fourth inning, with Matt Kremin supplying a two-run single and putting the Windjammers back in command with a 4-2 lead.
The Red Eddies got a run in the sixth inning when starting pitcher Drew Smith was hit by a pitch and made his way to third base via Pat Anthoine’s sacrifice bunt. Smith scored on a passed ball and made it a 4-3 game.
“I thought for the most part we battled through,” Jordan said. “We were resilient quite a bit. I thought overall the guys did a great job of staying together and battling right till the end.”
Smith struck out 11 batters before he was relieved by Brady Vincent with one out in the seventh inning. Vincent, who got the win, struck out two batters in the top of seventh.
“I just made it like any other game — just go in there and throw strikes,” Vincent said.
Smith said if it wasn’t for a few innings, he might have been able to finish the game.
“I had one or two rough innings,” Smith said. “I think if I didn’t have those … I would have been able to go the whole way.”
Bell allowed seven hits and struck out 10 batters while pitching the whole game for Camden Hills.
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