NYA captures Class D crown Panthers beat Lee Academy

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BANGOR – North Yarmouth Academy baseball coach Bruce Poliquin recognizes there are times when the opposing pitcher is going to make it difficult for his Panthers to score.

“So we focused on little ball in practice to prepare for this game,” said NYA center fielder-pitcher Tim Lachance after his Panthers had claimed their third straight state Class D championship and fifth in six years with a 7-3 win over Lee Academy at Mansfield Stadium Saturday.

“Little ball” or “small ball” refers to the ability to manufacture runs without extra-base hits. It entails the utilization of singles, stolen bases, bunts, hit-and-runs, slashes and moving runners along.

NYA (15-1) had just one extra-base hit but took full advantage of four walks, five errors, a wild pitch and a passed ball.

“When the other teams have made mistakes, we’ve been pretty good at capitalizing on them,” said Poliquin. “We love to force the issue [by being aggressive at the plate and on the basepaths].”

“They’re a quality club. They’ve won something like 39 out of their last 40 games [37 of 38]. So we felt we couldn’t give them any more than three extra outs thorough errors and walks, excluding intentional walks. We gave them seven,” said retiring Lee coach Randy Harris.

The third inning was particularly damaging because the Panthers scored three times while hitting just one ball out of the infield: Matt Curran’s sharp line-drive single to left to lead off the inning.

Curran continued to third when left fielder Hyun Sung Ro misplayed it and scored when third baseman Everett Houghton had Luke Welch’s grounder go off his glove.

Welch stole second, Dan Bartlett walked, Lachance had a bunt single and the final two runs scored on fielder’s choices by Micah Mangini and Tim DeLuca to make it 4-0.

Bartlett had singled home a first-inning run.

Two errors by Lee and a wild pitch made it 5-0 in the fourth and Bartlett’s sacrifice fly extended the lead in the sixth.

Lee (16-4) scored its three runs in the bottom of the sixth on two walks, a run-producing hit batsman and sacrifice flies by Nate Dow and Houghton.

The Pandas, who had a runner picked off second in the inning, were finally retired by Lachance, who induced Gerry Worster to ground to first with the bases loaded after he had surrendered Houghton’s sacrifice fly and a Blaine Clark single.

The Wake Forest University (N.C.)-bound Lachance pitched a scoreless seventh for his first career save. The Panthers turned a 4-6-3 double play in the seventh.

“Our defense was very important today. It kept us in the game,” said Lachance.

NYA made two errors.

Lee’s Houghton said, “We made too many errors and they’ve got a really good defensive team.”

Moss, who picked up the win with 5 1/3 innings of three-hit, three-run ball, said he was pleased with his first five innings.

“I spotted all my pitches: fastball, changeup and curve. I’m not sure what happened in the sixth. You’ve got to give them credit. They put the ball in play,” said the Holy Cross-bound (Mass.) Moss, who improved to 6-0.

“I thought we should have hit those guys better than we did. They must have placed their pitches well,” said Worster, who allowed eight hits and four earned runs.

Lee had averaged 10.6 runs per game before Saturday.

Lachance and Curran had two singles each for the Panthers while Kris King had two singles for Lee.

PANTHERS 7, PANDAS 3

North Yarmouth (15-1) Lee (16-4)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Curran, ss 4 2 2 0 Currie, c 4 1 0

Welch, 2b 3 1 1 0 King, rf 3 1 0

Bartlett, c 1 1 1 2 Thompson, ss 2 0 1

Lachance, cf-p 4 1 2 0 Dow, 2b 2 0 1

Mangini, 1b 4 0 0 1 Houghton, 3b-lf 2 0 1

DeLuca, 3b 4 0 1 1 Clark, dh 3 0 0

Moss, p-cf 3 0 0 0 Stevens, cf 0 0 0

Lynch, ph 1 0 1 0 Worster, p 3 0 0

Kroot, lf 1 0 0 0 Boulrisse, 1b 2 0 0

Hamilton, ph 1 0 0 0 Mallett, ph 0 0 0

Fear, lf 0 0 0 0 McIver, pr 0 0 0

Moran, rf 3 1 0 0 Sung Ro, lf 0 0 0

Pierce, ph 0 1 0 0 Doan, 3b 1 1 0

Totals 29 7 8 4 Totals 22 3 5 3

NYA 103 101 1 ? 7

Lee 000 003 0 ? 3

E?Kroot, Curran; Dow 2, Sung Ro, Houghton, Boulrisse; LOB?NYA 9; Lee 5; 2B?Welch, DP?NYA 1; Lee 1; S?Curran; SF?Bartlett; Houghton, Dow; SB?Curran, Lachance

NYA IP H R ER BB SO

Moss (W, 6-0) 5 1/3 3 3 3 2 6

Lachance (S, 1) 1 2/3 2 0 0 0 0

Lee IP H R ER BB SO

Worster (L, 5-2) 7 8 7 4 4 3

HBP?Sung Ro (by Moss), Thompson (by Moss); WP?Worster; PB?Currie; T?2:05; ATT?350 (est.)