Winthrops Jackson Ladd tracks down a line drive to the outfield to record an out during Monday’s victory over Telstar at Kents Hill School.
READFIELD — Winthrop wasn’t told it would be playing baseball on a raw, drizzly Monday until about four hours before game time.
It took the Ramblers some time to warm up to the idea of playing in the far-from-ideal conditions.
It also took them some time to warm up on the Kents Hill School turf field, but once they did, they were tough to stop.
Winthrop rallied from a 5-0 deficit and ran away from Telstar to invoke the 10-run mercy rule in the sixth inning of a 17-7 victory.
“We were told (Sunday) that this was canceled because the field was being used, and then we got told after lunch (on Monday) that it was back on,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “There weren’t that many happy faces on the bus. We had a rough start, but we pulled it out.”
“We turned around like that and were told that we were coming here at 5 (p.m.),” Winthrop senior pitcher Jacob Hickey said. “So it showed a lot of toughness mentally on our part to get this.”
Bennett Brooks reached base four times (triple, infield single, walk, hit by pitch) and scored four times for the Ramblers (4-1). Carson Camick also reached base four times (two singles, two walks) and drove in three runs.
Jarrett Bean had two hits and Josh Eliot drove in two runs for the Rebels (1-4).
Telstar looked like the only team that was ready to play early, touching Hickey for five runs on five hits, a hit batter and an error in the second. Zack Hill and Eliot had RBI singles, and Devin Mason scored on a double steal.
Hickey found a groove after that, though, setting the side down 1-2-3 in the third and eventually allowing just two unearned runs and three hits over the final four innings.
In addition to having to combat the cold and wet conditions to maintain his pitching grip, Hickey had to get used to the Kents Hill mound, which, like the rest of the field, is field turf, not dirt.
“It was interesting, to say the least,” Hicked said. “That mound’s a little different than usual. It’s hollow underneath so when you’re trying to plant you slip sometimes, especially in the wet conditions.”
Telstar starter Josh Eliot escaped after a one-out Brooks triple in the first and stranded another Winthrop runner in the second before his command abandoned him in Winthrop’s seven-run third inning.
The Ramblers did all of the damage with two outs. Four walks and two wild pitches were mixed in with Camick’s two-run single and an infield hit by Cameron Gaghan that plated Greg Fay for the tying run.
Camick scored on a wild pitch to give the Ramblers the lead, and Jackson Ladd beat out an infield hit to score Maguire Anuszewski to make it 7-5.
“All along, we’ve been a fairly resilient team,” Hickey said. “That was really big for us to keep the bases moving and keep getting quality hits. Just putting the ball in play in these types of conditions really does wonders. There’s probably going to be a mistake or something.”
Two of Winthrop’s six errors allowed Telstar to tie it in the top of the fourth. But Hickey and Ingram led off the bottom of the frame with walks off Telstar reliever Boston Ludden, and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Antonio Meucci and a single by Fay, respectively, to regain the lead for good. Anuszewski made it 10-7 with safety squeeze that scored Fay
The Ramblers added three more runs with the help of three Telstar errors in the fifth, then ended it with four in the sixth.
Winthrop catcher Matt Ingram and Telstar’s Devin Mason look up to see the call from the home plate umpire during Monday afternoon’s game. Mason was safe on the double steal play.Winthrop pitcher Jacob Hickey delivers a pitch during a light drizzle during Monday’s game against Telstar.Telstar’s Kellen True has a hard time handling a sharply hit line drive that bounced off the artifical turf during a light drizzle that created difficult conditions during their game against Winthrop on Monday at Kents Hill School.
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