Wickett’s relief effort lifts OT-Orono to win > Twins, Nova Seafood still unbeaten

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Sunday night’s Old Town-Orono vs. Biddeford State American Legion Tournament winners bracket game was going to come down to which team could find a pitcher who could shut down the other team.

Old Town-Orono reliever Brian Wickett turned out to be that man as he hurled two innings of hitless, shutout relief to preserve the Twins’ 10-8 victory at the Mansfield Baseball Complex in Bangor.

“I was a little nervous coming into the game but I felt I could shut them down if I threw strikes and let the guys play defense behind me,” said Wickett. “I had both my fastball and curve working and I spootted them well.”

“Brian has pitched in situations like this before,” said Old Town-Orono Coach Dave Paul. “He has pitched in state championship games and in State Legion Tournaments. He throws strikes, he keeps the ball down and hed has something on it.”

Wickett walked one and fanned one in his two innings. The win went to Nate Ballard, who struggled through seven innings. He allowed 11 hits and all eight runs although only three of them were earned.

Old Town-Orono, now 19-7, will take on the winner of the Nova Seafood-Skowhegan game in the 8:05 p.m. game on Monday. Biddeford will take on Franklin County at 4:05.

After the two teams squandered numerous scoring chances over the first three innings, Old Town-Orono erupted for six runs in the fourth inning to chase starter John Foran.

Andy Trice started the rally by walking on four pitches and, one out later, Nate Ballard dropped a soft line drive single into right.

Brian Wickett and Marc Halsted each drew walks to force in the first run and Jim Evans’ bouncer to second delivered the second run.

Mark Thibodeau then ripped a sharp two-run single over the third base bag; Ron Coombs lined a single to center and Chris Hashey doubled to the left center field gap to score Thibodeau and Coombs and chase Foran.

Biddeford answered with three in the bottom of the fourth on singles by Casey Bourque and Brian Bouthot; a walk; a run-producing wild pitch; Karl Buckley’s sacrifice fly into shallow center that was caught by shortstop Trice and Keith Croteau’s RBI triple over left fielder Thibodeau’s head.

The Twins got two in the top of the sixth on singles by Thibodeau and Coombs (bunt); Trice’s bloop double to right and Wihbey’s RBI fielder’s choice.

But Biddeford answered with three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth on second baseman Hashey’s fielding error; a walk; Croteau’s base hit; Crepeau’s two-run single to right center and Casey Roy’s crisp RBI single.

The teams swapped two-run seventh-inning rallies.

Wickett tripled to right center to begin Old Town’s seventh inning rally and he scored on Evans’ one-out bloop single to left. Evans stole second and rode home on Coombs’ ground ball single to left.

Biddeford’s two runs were unearned.

Bouthot hit a one-out single and Buckley drew a two-out walk before an infield single by Croteau loaded the bases. Shortstop Andy Trice’s throwing error allowed the two runs to score.

“We received RBIs from seven different people,” pointed out Paul. “We made four errors but we also made some great plays.”

Coombs had three hits for the winners with Halsted and Thibodeau collecting two each. Croteau had three hits for Biddeford and Crepeau and Bouthot had two each.

OT-Orono 10, Biddeford 8

Old Town-Orono Biddeford

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Wickett, cf-p 4 2 1 0 Buckley, 2b 4 1 1 1

Halsted, 3b 4 1 2 0 Croteau, ss 5 1 3 1

Evans, 1b 4 1 1 2 J. Crepeau, rf 5 0 2 2

Thibodeau, lf 6 1 2 2 Peloquin, 3b 5 0 1 0

Coombs, c 5 2 3 1 Roy, lf 4 0 1 1

Hashey, 2b 5 1 1 2 Willett, c 5 0 0 0

Trice, ss 3 1 1 0 Foran, p 0 0 0 0

Wihbey, rf 4 0 0 1 Bourque, p 4 1 1 0

Ballard, p 3 1 1 0 Bouthot, 1b 3 2 2 0

Paradis, cf 1 0 0 0 a-Rhames, 0 0 0 0

Coombs, cf 3 3 0 0

Totals 39 10 12 8 Totals 38 8 11 5

a-walked for Bouthot in the ninth inning

Old Town-Orono 000 602 200 – 10

Biddeford 000 303 200 – 8

E – Trice 3, Hashey, Croteau 2B – Hashey, Trice 3B – Wickett, Croteau LOB – Old Town-Orono 12, Biddeford 11 DP – Halsted to Evans, Halsted to Hashey to Evans SB – Evans, Buckley, Thibodeau SF – Buckley

Pitching Summary

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Old Town-Orono

Ballard (W, 5-1) 7 11 8 3 4 0

Wickett (S-2) 2 0 0 0 1 1

Biddeford

Foran (L, 5-3) 3 2/3 5 6 6 9 2

Bourque 5 1/3 7 4 4 0 1

HBP – Foran, Croteau (by Ballard), Halsted (by Bourque) TIME -3:01

(Sunday’s Other Games) Augusta 000 001 000 1 7 0 Lewiston 101 000 00x – 2 6 0

Goraj and K. O’Hare; Beaulieu and Pelletier Franklin County 020 940 130 – 19 17 6 Cumberland 010 301 300 – 8 7 8

Lancaster, Wilkins (7) and Williams; Hodsdon, Smith (4), Kramer (5), Danosky (8), Allard (9) and Griffith