Andrews Post wins Legion lid with 12-0 rout> Old Town-Orono falls after forcing championship game

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HARRISON_John Montgomery had seen the ball find the holes as if his infielders were no more than the last threads holding the heel of a wool sock in March.

The Stearns High School junior took the mound for the first time at the Maine American Legion State Baseball Tourney at the RADR Recreational Complex and lasted two-thirds of an inning before being relieved in the midst of a six-run seventh inning Wednesday afternoon.

Montgomery threw 13 strikes in 26 pitches, while he watched Andrews Post erase the 7-4 lead his Old Town-Orono Twins had held.

He allowed three runs, two earned, on two hits, two walks and one strikeout. He hit the first batter he faced.

And that was in Old Town-Orono’s 12-11 win over Andrews Post in game one.

But the Twins’ lost that edge in game two, for the state championship. Andrews Post won the title 12-0.

Montgomery, the lanky kid from up north, battled back when manager Dave Paul put the ball back in his glove in the championship game.

“I was real frustrated in that first game when I came in and couldn’t find the plate,” he said after a six-hit, three-run performance in his team’s shutout loss.

“I think I wasn’t concentrating, and that’s something I tried to work on between the games in the bullpen,” Montgomery said, noting he also had to put the curve back in his breaking ball.

But his concentration and 59 strikes in 99 pitches weren’t enough for the Twins, who lost after making their way through the losers’ bracket, and forcing the championship game against the team from Portland.

Reliever Ray Houston saw a little of what Montgomery had lived through in the first game, as his second game outing turned into a six-run, five-hit one-third inning appearance in the sixth.

“I thought [reliever] Ray [Houston], when he came in, would do a good job, and he did, but they came out and hit the ball real hard,” Montgomery said. “He threw strikes but they did a real good job of hitting the ball real hard.”

Montgomery’s effort as a utility infielder and second baseman earned him a place on the tournament’s all-star team.

Offensively, Old Town-Orono ran into a buzzsaw named Brian Ross from Portland High, who threw 13 scoreless innings in the tournament and was named its most valuable player.

“Once they got on a roll … if we had got one or two [runs] early and got a little confidence going,” Paul said. “But the longer you go, the tougher the kid kept pitching.”

Derek Meader’s single in the third inning wound up breaking the 0-0 tie, when he advanced on Derek Tarkinson’s single, before scoring on a single by Tom Troubh.

Meader added a one-run single to his tally, and Tarkinson finished the day with a double and a second single. Joel Dante had a two-run double and two-run single, and Travis Geistert singled twice and had a one-RBI double.

For Old Town-Orono, Andy Trice, Jared Foster and John Powers each had singles.

In the day’s first game, Trice heard the bugle’s call as he hung on for the 12-11 win in a three-hit relief performance.

Starting at shortshop, Trice took the mound from reliever Montgomery to stop the bleeding in the midst of a six-run seventh inning with Andrews Post leading 9-8.

FIRST GAME Andrews 101 020 610 – 11 15 1 OT-Orono 104 201 40x – 12 14 3

Agger, White (5), MacDonald (7) and Tarkinson; Bagley, Montgomery (7), Trice (7) and LePage

SECOND GAME

Andrews 12, Twins 0

Old Town-Orono Andrews Post

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Stinson, cf 3 0 0 0 Moran, ss 4 1 1 0

Trice, ss 3 0 1 0 Tarkinson, c 4 2 3 0

Goofy, lf 3 0 0 0 Troubh, lf 3 0 1 2

Mntgmry, p,1b 3 0 0 0 White, lf 1 0 0 0

a-Hite 0 0 0 0 MacDonald, 1b 4 2 1 1

Bagley, 3b 3 0 0 0 Dante, 3b 4 1 2 4

LePage, c 3 0 0 0 Ross, p 2 1 1 0

Rhoads, rf 3 0 0 0 Connick, cf 3 2 1 1

Foster, 1b 2 0 1 0 Geistert, 2b 4 1 3 3

Houston, p 0 0 0 0 Meader, rf 4 2 2 1

Perry, p 0 0 0 0

Powers, 2b 2 0 1 0

Totals 25 0 3 0 Totals 33 12 15 12

a-pinch ran for Montgomery in 7th

OT-Orono (24-8) 000 000 0 – 0

Andrews Post (23-4) 001 029 x – 12

E – Stinson, Tarkinson 2B – MacDonald, Geistert LOB – OT-Orono 4, Andrews Post 8 DP – Bagley to Foster SB – Connick

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

OT-Orono

Montgomery (L, 0-1) 5 6 3 3 3 2

Houston 1/3 5 6 6 0 0

Perry 2/3 4 3 3 0 0

Andrews Post

Ross (W, 2-0) 7 3 0 0 0 10

HBP – MacDonald by Montgomery; Connick by Houston WP – Montgomery, Houston, Perry TIME – 1:45 ATTENDANCE – 213