LISBON — Maranacook always had an answer Saturday in a Class C South regional semifinal baseball game against Lisbon.
When the Greyhounds scored, the Black Bears responded the next half inning. Then Maranacook landed a haymaker in the top of the third to put the game out of reach en route to a 7-4 victory.
The No. 3-seeded Black Bears will face top seeded Hall-Dale in the regional final.
“Winning every inning is an approach and we try to take that approach,” Maranacook coach Eric Brown said. “That’s a good goal for us.”
The Black Bears (15-3) did jump out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Silas Mohlar’s single to center field scored Mitch Root, who reached base with a walk and then stole second to get into scoring position.
Lisbon (14-4) was able to counterpunch in the bottom of the second, starting with designated hitter Jonah Sautter reaching on an error. Cole Bolduc’s single to the outfield sent Sautter to third, and Bolduc reached second after the ball was misplayed in the outfield. The No. 9 hitter Daytona McIver legged out an infield single to score Sautter to tie the game.
“That’s good, quality baseball, you get a couple runs and the (other) team responds,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “They responded, we would come back a little bit. It was a good back-and-forth game, for the most part. We battled, we didn’t quit and we didn’t give up. I am very proud of my seniors. I am going to miss my seniors, it’s hard to see the season end, but I am proud of the kids today.”
The top of the third put the ballgame out of reach for the Greyhounds.
Avery Beckwith got on base and stole second. He moved to third on an Aric Belanger single, and scored on Jackson McPhedran’s single. After an international walk of Dan Garand loaded the bases, Duncan Rodgers was hit by a pitch to score Belanger, and Root added a two-run single to extend the lead to 5-1.
“We knew he had a decent curveball coming into the game,” Belanger said of Lisbon starter Noah Austin. “Our coach always likes to tell us if that first-pitch fastball comes right there and you like it, take that one for a ride, don’t wait for the curveball.”
Belanger did just that when he led off the game by sending the first pitch to center for a single. He was later called out in the inning when Lisbon made an appeal at third base that he left early on a sacrifice fly attempt.
Maranacook added another run in the top of the fourth on an RBI single by McPhedran.
Avery Beckwith was solid on the mound for Black Bears, pitching into the fifth inning. Most of the damage Lisbon had against him came from the bottom third of its lineup. The objective going into the game was to limit the offense at the top of the lineup.
“Part of the game plan today was not let (the) Austin (brothers) and (Lucas) Francis beat us,” Brown said. “I’ve been to a few games and scouted them, I knew what they were about and when they get those opportunities, we saw it with (Noah) Austin with the triple, we didn’t want those guys to beat us.”
Things did start to turn around for the Greyhounds in the field, and that carried over to the plate. In the top of the sixth, right fielder Neil LaRochelle and center fielder Noah Austin both made outstanding catches to help end the inning after a couple Black Bears had reached base.
Jared Beckwith took over for Avery in the bottom of the fifth and ran into trouble in the sixth. LaRochelle started the inning by working a walk, and Noah Buiniskas, who came into pinch hit for McIver, also drew a walk. Buiniskas was lifted for Hunter Davis as a pinch runner. Noah Austin drove both runners home with a triple. Ben Leclair came into pinch hit for DJ Douglass and laid a perfect sac bunt to score Austin.
“As you well know, when that player makes that great defensive play in the field and he comes up in the next inning, he’s going to get the hit,” Ridley said. “That was huge by Noah Austin, he has been huge all year for us in those big situations. He did a great job on the mound and I am very happy about how he did things.”
The inning came to an end when Lucas Francis was caught stealing second base.
Similar to the Greyhounds, the Black Bears also got to Lisbon’s reliever, Sean Scott, who relieved Noah Austin in the fifth. Rodgers and Root reached base on walks, and Mohlar reached on an error. Jarrid Schmidt’s sac fly scored Rogers to make it 7-4. That was the only damage done, though, because Lisbon caught Maranacook double stealing for out number two, and Avery Beckwith struck out to end the inning.
Lisbon was able to get a couple walks in the bottom of the seventh off of closer Jay Lauter to get the tying run on, but Lauter didn’t allow a hit in the inning and got all three outs by strikeout to end the game.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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