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Baseball wins have been hard to come by for the Schenck High School Wolverines the past few seasons. In fact, the Wolverines won just five of 28 games during the previous two years.
So junior righthander Ray Houston wanted to get the 1994 season off to a good start and that’s exactly what he did.
Houston scattered eight hits and struck out 11 in a route-going performance to lead the Wolverines to a 10-2 win over Penquis Valley High of Milo at the Mansfield Complex in Bangor on Saturday afternoon.
“We really needed a win because we didn’t have a good season last year (5-9),” said the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Houston. “We felt if we won this game, it could pick us up for the whole season.”
Houston had been bothered by tendinitis in his right elbow but didn’t show any signs of it on Saturday.
“I felt pretty strong,” said Houston, who didn’t walk anybody and allowed only one earned run. “My curve was working really well today.”
“He had a good curve,” said Penquis catcher-pitcher Andy Hoyle. “We’ve got a young team and we haven’t been outside to practice so we hadn’t seen many curves. We don’t throw many curves in batting practice.”
The score is misleading because it was a 4-2 game until the Wolverines erupted for six insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Jared Stanley started the rally with a one-out double off reliever Scott Graves. Stanley’s fly ball sailed over the head of right fielder Mike Witham, who got a late jump on the ball.
Eric Giberson followed with his third hit of the day, a ground ball single to left, and Steve York walked to load the bases. Chad Michaud walked to force in the first run and Hoyle replaced Graves with a 1-0 count on Brent Deschaine.
Hoyle walked Deschaine to force in another run before No. 9 hitter Darren Stanley lined a two-run single to left center and moved to second on the throw.
Josh Radel then bounced a grounder off the glove of diving first baseman Mike Harris that deflected to second baseman Rich Melanson. Melanson beat Radel to the bag as one run scored and the two collided, causing the ball to squirt free and allowing the second run to cross the plate.
Schenck took a 4-0 lead at the expense of starter and loser Mike Witham in the third inning on singles by Tony Turcotte, Houston (RBI) and Giberson (2 RBIs) and two errors.
Penquis, now 0-3, rallied for two runs in the top of the sixth on lead-off singles by Willie Neal and Melanson and a one-out run-scoring single by Hoyle, which got past center fielder Giberson allowing a second run to score.
Hoyle wound up on third but Houston struck out Witham and got Paul Conlogue on a grounder to third to escape further damage.
Giberson paced Schenck’s attack with his three hits and two RBIs.
“We all came ready to play. We were psyched for the game,” said Giberson.
Turcotte had a pair of hits.
Neal went three-for-four for Penquis.
“We had our opportunities but we didn’t hit with runners on base,” said Penquis Coach Murrel Harris, whose team had runners on second and third with nobody out in the first inning but failed to score.
Wolverines 10, Patriots 2
Penquis Schenck
Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi
Neal, ss 4 0 3 0 Radel, 2b 5 0 0 2
Melanson, 2b 4 1 2 0 Turcotte, ss 5 1 2 0
Flemming, 3b 3 1 0 0 Houston, p 4 1 1 0
A. Hoyle, c-p 3 0 1 1 J. Stanley, c 4 2 1 0
Witham, p-rf 3 0 0 0 Giberson, cf 4 2 3 2
Heal, lf 1 0 0 0 York, lf 2 1 0 0
Conlogue, lf 2 0 0 0 Michaud, rf 3 1 0 1
Leduc, cf 3 0 1 0 Deschaine, 1b 0 1 0 1
Harris, 1b 3 0 1 0 D. Stanley, 3b 3 1 1 2
J. Hoyle, rf 1 0 0 0
Graves, p-c 2 0 0 0
Totals 29 2 8 1 Totals 30 10 8 8
Penquis 000 002 0 – 2
Schenck 004 006 x – 10
E – Neal 2, Melanson 3, Giberson 2B – J. Stanley 3B – Leduc LOB – Penquis 6, Schenck 11 SB – Turcotte, Giberson 2, Michaud, Deschaine; Neal, Melanson
Pitching Summary
PITCHER IP H R BB SO
Penquis
Witham (L, 0-2) 3 4 4 2 5
Graves 2 1/3 3 4 4 2
A. Hoyle 2/3 1 2 1 0
Schenck
Houston (W, 1-0) 7 8 2 0 11
HBP – York (by Witham) WP – Witham, Houston 2 PB – J. Stanley BK – Witham TIME -1:47
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