Lincoln rallies past Houlton Dow earns second win with 137-pitch effort

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LINCOLN – This comeback thing is working pretty well for the Lincoln Lumber.

Lincoln spotted fellow rookie entry Houlton a 6-0 lead and then kept cutting away at that lead until finally nailing down a 10-8 victory Sunday.

It was the fourth comeback win and fourth win overall for Lincoln, now 4-4 in its inaugural American Legion baseball Zone 1 season.

Houlton is now 3-6.

Although Lincoln had several examples of the benefits of perseverance, none was more illustrative than starting pitcher Nate Dow. Dow, who has given up 17 runs in two starts, is now 2-0 after his second straight gut-it-out start.

“I don’t start of very good, I guess,” said Dow, who threw 33 pitches, faced 10 batters, and allowed five hits in the first. “As the game went on, I started feeling it more. My curveball started working more and more. I was getting more confidence as the game went on too.”

Dow threw 137 pitches in all and allowed five more hits the rest of the game.

As he was settling down on the mound, Dow and his teammates were stirring things up at the plate. They chipped away for a run in each of the first three innings to halve the deficit. After Houlton added a run in the top of the fourth to make it 7-3, the Lumber took the lead with a five-run fourth highlighted by Tom Lasko’s two-run home run to left center. It was one of five hits in the inning.

Tyrel Christie’s solo shot in the fifth tied things up, but Lincoln took the lead for good in the seventh on Andy McLellan’s RBI double to right center. It was one of four hits in five at-bats for the first baseman.

“I think we all just try our best and we don’t give up,” said McLellan, who had two doubles and two singles. “We could have shut it down after that first inning, but we didn’t.”

Lincoln added an insurance run in the eighth on Nathan Cousineau’s one-out single, a Matt Malone double, and a passed ball. Cousineau, Tyler Gardner, Andrew Kites and Dow had two hits apiece.

The banged-up Shiretowners literally went down to their last man as ace pitcher Mike Lenentine had to leave the game with a sore arm and two outs in the first and second baseman Nick Cole left the game with a lacerated leg- the latest setbacks for injury-ravaged Houlton.

“Nick took one in the shin, Ryan Schools took one off the ankle last night, and Mike Schools is banged up too,” said coach Chris Kennedy. “Basically, whoever’s not sore and doesn’t have bruises is going to be on the mound for us.”

LUMBER 10, SHIRETOWNERS 8

Houlton (3-6) Lincoln (4-4)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Cole, 2b 4 1 1 0 Flannery, 2b 4 1 1

Schools, 1b 1 0 0 0 Cousineau, ss 5 2 0

English, c 5 1 3 0 Malone, 3b 4 2 0

Palmer, ss 4 0 2 0 Lasko, c 5 1 2

Campbell, lf 5 1 1 1 McLellan, 1b 5 1 1

Lenentine, p 1 1 0 1 Ham, cf 5 1 1 0

Blanchette, p-rf 3 0 0 0 Gardner, rf 2 1

Christie, rf-3b-p 4 2 2 1 Kites, lf 4 0

Hitchcock, 1b-3b 3 1 0 0 Dow, p 5 0 2

Davis, cf 4 0 0 1

Eldridge, 3b-p-2b 4 1 1 1

Totals 38 8 10 5 Totals 39 10 15 7

Houlton 600 110 000 ? 8

Lincoln 111 500 11x ? 10

E?Cousineau; LOB?Houlton 5; Lincoln 17; 2B?English; Cousineau, Malone, McLellan 2;HR?Christie (1); Lasko (1); DP?Cousineau-Flannery-McLellan

Houlton IP H R ER BB SO

Lenentine 2/3 0 1 1 1 0

Blanchette 1 1/3 4 1 1 3 1

Eldridge (L,0-1) 1 1/3 6 6 6 2 1

Christie 4 2/3 5 2 1 6 8

Lincoln IP H R ER BB SO

Dow (W, 2-0) 9 10 8 6 2 3

WP?Eldridge 2, Christie; PB?English 2; Lasko 2; T?2:50; ATT?63