West senior stars score 5 in 3rd inning to beat East

BANGOR – When Winslow’s Chris McInnis looks back on this game, he’ll probably see it in contradictory terms.

Sure, he’ll remember the final score of the 11th High School Senior All-Star Baseball Classic – won by the West 5-3 Friday night – and think of all the great players he played with and against, but then he’ll recall the personal things.

Those things will go either one of two distinct files: good or bad. Things like his diving, sliding, one-handed stab of a sinking liner in right field that rated play-of-the-week status and ended the West’s turn at bat in the fifth will go into the “good” bin. So too will the fact he was awarded as the East’s offensive player of the game after accounting for one of his team’s four hits.

And then there’s the “bad” bin, which will house his one-inning stint on the mound, where the recent graduate gave up five hits and all five of the West’s runs (four earned) in the third inning.

“Yeah, I was surprised to get that award because we didn’t have too much offense in the game and I didn’t do that well on the mound, but I had fun,” said McInnis, who will continue playing baseball at Husson College in Bangor, as will several of the players on the East and West squads Friday night.

McInnis, like everyone else on Mansfield Stadium turf, said he was just happy to play.

“You just have a good time and play a good game,” McInnis said. “You want to try to win, but if you don’t, oh well, it’s an honor just to be here.”

Other honorees included East defensive player of the game Jason Harvey, a shortstop from Bucksport who will also play at Husson.

“We try to win, but it’s mostly just a chance to hang out with the guys and have fun. I approached both games the same way. Meet new people and just get a chance to hang out,” said Harvey, who also played in the basketball senior all-star game.

Harvey got the East off to a fast start as he led off the first with a walk, stole both second and third base, and scored on a passed ball against West starter and South Portland pitcher Greg Norton, who was named Maine’s Mr. Baseball prior to the start of the game.

“I was looking forward to facing Norton,” said Harvey, a fellow Mr. Baseball finalist. “I’ve heard a lot about him. He throws the ball very well. He throws hard and he has a pretty good curveball.”

Norton pitched two hitless innings and yielded just one unearned run to earn the win, but only after the West’s five-run uprising in the top of the third.

After a leadoff flyout, the West ripped five straight hits to score four runs. The big hits were back-to-back RBI doubles by Maranacook of Readfield’s Seth Emery and Sanford’s Kevin Sevigny, who both led their teams to state Class B and A state titles, respectively. Eric Burnheimer followed with an RBI single and Tip Fairchild hit an RBI double. Fairchild scored the final run an out later on a fielding error.

The East got back two runs in the fifth via Tyler Cummings’ leadoff single, three walks, a wild pitch, a stolen base, and a throwing error.

Joel Kershner of Gorham singled twice to earn West offensive MVP honors while Sevigny took the defensive award. Norton also had two singles.

Players like Ryan Hutchins, a towering product of George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill, pretty much summed up the general feeling by everyone involved in the game.

“A lot of us don’t know each other very well, so it was great to meet some guys,” he said. “It’s all about having fun really. You can’t take it too seriously.”

But for those who do, this was the West’s eighth win in the 11-game series.