Foxcroft edges Winslow for EM title Ponies to play Maranacook today in state championship

loading...

BANGOR – Foxcroft Academy baseball coach Paul Withee said his team has received “timely hitting, good pitching and great defense” all season long.

That was the case again Friday night as the Ponies rode the left arm of Withee’s sophomore son Josh, an errorless performance behind him and a clutch run-scoring single by Seth Gabarro to a 4-2 victory over Winslow in their Eastern Maine Class B championship game at Mansfield Stadium.

Foxcroft improved to 15-5 in annexing its first EM baseball title since 1980. Winslow finished 14-6.

Foxcroft meets 18-2 Maranacook of Readfield in today’s 1 p.m. state title game at Mansfield Stadium.

Withee wasn’t overpowering, he didn’t strike out anybody, but he limited the Black Raiders to seven hits and two walks in improving his record to 6-0.

“I was a little timid at first but then I got all the confidence in the world,” said Withee. “Everything was working. I tried setting up my fastball but then they started timing that up so I had to mix it up a little bit more by throwing my curve and knuckler in there,” said Withee. “I didn’t have a strikeout but that’s just a team game right there. All the plays were made in the field. It was a total team effort again.”

Winslow pitcher Chris McInnis, who also pitched very well, said Withee “kept a lot of us off-balance with his curve and fastball. He hit his spots well, going in and out. He pitched a really good game.”

The hard-throwing McInnis pitched a four-hitter and just one of the runs off him was earned. He fanned four and walked three.

Withee and McInnis had no-hitters through three innings but the Ponies broke through in the fourth.

Withee walked, went to second when Chris Chambers grounded out to McInnis, who had the ball go off his glove before he recovered, and scored on Gabarro’s sharp line-drive single to center for his 28th RBI of the season.

“Everybody has their own perfect pitch and that was mine. It was a belt-high fastball,” said Gabarro.

McInnis said, “It was a bad pitch by me. It was a fastball right down the middle and he nailed it.”

The Ponies scored three more in the fifth, all unearned, on one-out singles by Brandon Croan and Aaron Sutton, Danny White’s two-out bloop single to right, a ground ball by Withee that glanced off the arm of shortstop Taylor Helberg for an error that plated two runs and a run-producing passed ball.

Helberg said he stayed down on the ball “but it took a [bad] hop and came up on me. It went off my arm.”

The Raiders, who won two playoff games with seventh-inning rallies, scored their two runs in the sixth and threatened in the seventh.

Ricky Vigue ripped an 0-2 pitch into center for a two-out single to trigger the sixth-inning rally and McInnis grounded a single to left for his eighth hit in his last nine at-bats.

Chris Langlais followed with a two-run double over left fielder Jason Weymouth’s head before Withee induced Dave Hamann to ground out.

In the seventh, Winslow’s Dan Bibeau hit a one-out single but pinch-runner Andrew Millett came on for him and was thrown out at third on Eric Willett’s base hit to left.

Millett didn’t pick up third base coach and head coach Robin Weed’s signal to stop at second.

The relay went from left fielder Jason Weymouth to shortstop Danny White to third baseman Rob Crocker.

“Holy smokes! Surprised wasn’t even the word,” said White about Millett’s decision. “I heard the guys hollering go to three [third] so I threw and got him.”

After Marty McCaslin’s base hit, Withee induced a game-ending grounder to shortstop White.

PONIES 4, BLACK RAIDERS 2

Winslow (14-6) Foxcroft (15-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Vigue, c 3 1 1 0 White, ss 3 1 0

McInnis, p 2 1 2 0 Withee, p 2 1 0

Langlais, 1b 3 0 1 2 Chambers, cf 2 0 0

b-Nelson 0 0 0 0 Gabarro, 1b 3 0 1

Hamann, 2b 3 0 0 0 Crocker, 3b 3 0 0

Helberg, ss 3 0 0 0 Weymouth, lf 2 0 0

Bibeau, dh 2 0 1 0 Croan, c 3 1 0

Lopez, 3b 0 0 0 0 Sutton, rf 2 1 0

a-Lindie 0 0 0 0 Pelletier, 2b 2 0 0

c-Millett 0 0 0 0

Willett, cf 3 0 1 0

Runnells, rf 2 0 0 0

d-McCaslin 1 0 1 0

e-Browne 0 0 0 0

Delile, 3b 3 0 0 0

Totals 25 2 7 2 Totals 22 4 4 1

a- ran for Bibeau in 5th inning; b- ran for Langlais in 6th; c- ran for Bibeau in 7th; d- singled for Runnells in 7th; e- ran for McCaslin in 7th

Winslow 000 002 0 ? 2

Foxcroft 000 130 x ? 4

E? Helberg; LOB? Winslow 4, Foxcroft 4; 2B? Langlais; DP?Crocker-Gabarro-Crocker-Pelletier-White; Helberg-Hamann-Langlais; SB? McInnis

Winslow IP H R ER BB SO

McInnis (L, 6-3) 6 4 4 1 3 4

Foxcroft IP H R ER BB SO

Withee (W, 6-0) 7 7 2 2 2 0

BK? McInnis; PB? Vigue 2; T? 1:55; ATT? 300 (est.)