MONMOUTH — This is no time of year to be short-handed.
Monmouth Academy had five of nine starters either missing or out of their usual place in Tuesday’s Western Class C baseball preliminary game. Two hitters into the game, Traip Academy of Kittery lost its catcher after a scary collision.
The Mustangs’ mixed-bag lineup weathered its storm, while the Rangers’ makeshift battery slowly drained. No. 8 Monmouth put up six runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth, surviving for a 12-5 win over No. 9 Traip.
Freshman D.J. McHugh — one of Monmouth’s missing starters — came off the pine swinging. He was 3-for-3, with RBI singles in the fifth and sixth.
Monmouth advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinal at No. 1 St. Dom’s. The Saints swept the teams’ two-game series during the Mountain Valley Conference regular-season.
“We’re kind of depleted right now,” said Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi.
Two Monmouth seniors were dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules after graduation.
Starting catcher Billy Cummings missed several hours of school Tuesday due to illness, returning just in time and feeling well enough to start at designated hitter. And McHugh was benched for missing practice over the weekend in order to play in an out-of-state tournament with his travel team.
Forced to start two junior varsity players and two backups and to shuffle the defensive deck, Monmouth (10-6) wouldn’t go away.
“We showed lot of guts this year, after winning two and three games the last two years,” Monmouth senior first baseman and relief pitcher Roger Bachelder said.
Bachelder belted a double and a triple for Monmouth. In the fifth, he walked and then rounded the bases on three wild pitches.
The Mustangs scored their six runs at the expense of all three Traip pitchers — Mark McKenney, Nick Foye and Lucas Edwards — in that frame.
In one stretch, highlighted by big hitters Bachelder and Josh Fournier teasingly showing bunt, Monmouth rode out three consecutive walks and a hit batsman.
“I think at one point it was 12 straight balls,” Palleschi said. “We really weren’t going to bunt in that situation, but if they were going to keep throwing the ball to the backstop, we were going to do whatever it took.”
Traip (8-9) took advantage of four unearned runs in the top of third to lead 4-3 until the fifth.
Monmouth’s aggressiveness in the batter’s box and on the basepaths magnified the departure of Traip sophomore catcher Christian Montembeau.
As two Rangers chased and dove after a popped-up bunt by Brandon Goff, Montembeau’s head collided with McKenney’s knee, causing a serious facial injury.
The game was delayed 20 minutes while Montembeau was stabilized and transferred to an ambulance. Traip coach Paul Marquis said rescue workers were confident that Montembeau’s front teeth could be saved.
“It was kind of a roller coaster ride,” Marquis said. “We came all the way up here, fired up to play, and then that kind of took the wind out of our sails. But I thought we responded after that.”
Kyle Fletcher and Goff both scored after their first-inning singles. Bachelder hit a sacrifice fly and Cummings an RBI double for a 3-0 Monmouth lead.
Traip maximized two Monmouth errors and singles by Brandon Metivier, McKenney and Cole Kuehl in its big inning.
McKenney retired eight out of nine in one stretch. When Goff walked to lead off the fifth, however, it gave the Mustangs the opportunity they needed to test Traip’s relief corps and its inexperienced, replacement receiver.
Goff stole second and third, then scored on the first of four wild pitches in the inning.
“We finally got a chance to put some stress on them,” Bachelder said.
Monmouth did its share with the bats in the fifth, too. Jeremy Ashlock stroked an RBI single. Fletcher clubbed a two-run double.
Fletcher pitched the first three innings before yielding to Ashlock, who got the win. Bachelder held Traip to one run on two hits and stranded a pair of runners in the seventh.
All three would be eligible to pitch Thursday.
“That’s good, because we didn’t want to get into a bigger hole than we already are in,” Palleschi said.
koakes@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
