Peake powers Trenton sweep Acadians take two from Orono

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ORONO – While the first game of Saturday’s American Legion baseball doubleheader was virtually decided before some fans had a chance to find a seat at the University of Maine’s Mahaney Diamond, the second wasn’t over until the final at-bat.

Phineas Peake slapped a two-run single up the middle in the top of the eighth inning and Collin Henry pitched two shutout innings in relief as Trenton rallied for a 6-4, eight-inning victory over Orono in the nightcap.

The Acadians banged out 15 hits en route to a 12-2 victory in the opener.

The second game started like the first, with Trenton jumping out to a quick first-inning lead.

The Acadians got an RBI groundout from Collin Henry, an RBI single from Kyle Shea and a steal of home by Lucas Marks, chalking up an early 3-0 lead against Orono starter Jarrett Lukas.

The recent Mr. Baseball winner settled down from there, allowing just one run on five hits in his final six innings of work.

“He had us off balance all day, we knew he was going to compete,” Trenton coach Bill Gray said.

Once Lukas mixed in offspeed pitches to go with his fastball, he was finding himself ahead in the count more often.

“He got himself into counts where he was able to control what he was able to throw instead of just having to pump fastballs,” Orono coach David Utterback said.

“He did a nice job of getting ahead of batters so he could throw some offspeed stuff. He just felt more comfortable after that first inning.”

After the Twins rallied to take a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth, on an RBI single by Tyler Honey, the Acadians struck right back in the top of the seventh, tying it at 4 on Collin Ciomei’s RBI double.

After three of the first four batters reached in the top of the eighth, Peake took a 2-2 curveball from reliever Dana Leland and sent it back where it came from, scoring Lucas Marks and Evan Alexander with the decisive runs.

“I just tried to hit it, luckily it went to a good place,” Peake said.

Henry took over from there, striking out four in his two innings of work.

The Twins threatened in their half of the eighth, and had runners on first and third with two down, but Henry got Honey to strike out on a 3-2 fastball to end the game.

Lukas’ final line was 11 hits, four runs, all earned, with two walks and three strikeouts in seven innings.

Honey and Corey Fournier each singled and scored on a passed ball in the fifth inning while Adam Fournier singled and scored on another passed ball to get the Twins on the board in the second.

Pat McAleer added a pair of singles while Matt Jones singled and doubled.

In the first game, the Acadians put it away early with a five-run second inning and a four-run outburst in the fourth.

Alexander drove in the first second-inning run with an RBI groundout to second. After Nick Saunders singled and Peake’s bunt singled advanced him to third, Blake Wessel slapped an RBI single through the left side to give the Acadians a 3-0 advantage.

One batter later, Ciomei poked a two-run single, and next batter Henry added an RBI single to give pitcher Sam Merrill a 6-0 advantage.

“It was one of those games [where] you can’t explain how it happens, we just got a couple runs and it got contagious,” Gray said. “It took the pressure off the hitters.”

Marks keyed the four-run outburst in the fourth inning with a looping two-run double to left which got caught up in the stiff breeze and tailed away from Twins’ left fielder Corey Fournier.

Alexander capped that rally with a sacrifice fly to left that gave Trenton an 11-0 lead, and Nick Swanson capped the Acadians’ scoring with a sac fly to center an inning later.

With the breeze blowing in toward the plate, home runs were at a premium, and the Acadians got a number of opposite-field base hits.

“In BP [batting practice] they found out the wind was blowing in so they weren’t going to hit home runs,” Gray said. “They just went up to hit.”

Utterback noted that the Acadians’ bats weren’t the only thing giving the Twins fits in the opener.

“[Merrill] did an excellent job of not letting us get anybody on base,” he said. “The tone was set early in that first game.”

Merrill pitched five strong innings, and the two runs he gave up were both unearned. He surrendered just one hit, a single by Leland, while walking just two and striking out four.

Ciomei got the Acadians on the board in the top of the first with a steal of home, while Nick Saunders doubled to knock in a run in the third.

Ciomei scored four runs on the afternoon while compiling three singles, two doubles and a triple while knocking in three runs in the two games.

Henry singled twice and doubled to knock in a pair in the opener, and he finished with three RBIs in the two games.

Lance Gale pitched two scoreless, no-hit innings of relief.

ACADIANS 12, TWINS 2

(Saturday’s First Game)

Trenton Orono

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Wessel, ss 5 1 1 1 Honey, cf-p 4 0 0

Ciomei, rf 4 3 3 2 LeBreton, 3b 1 0 0

Hale, rf 0 1 0 0 Casey-Covell, 3b 1 0

Henry, 1b 5 2 3 2 Lukas, ss 0 0 0

N. Swanson, lf 2 1 0 1 Leland, rf 3 0

Lawson, lf 0 0 0 0 Dunton, p-cf 3 0 0

Marks, c 4 0 1 2 Keezer, 1b 3 0 0

J. Swanson, c 0 0 0 0 McAleer, c 2 0

Shea, 2b 3 2 3 0 Swett, 2b 1 0 0

Hodge, 2b 1 0 0 0 Jones, 2b 0 0 0

Alexander, dh 3 0 0 2 Francis, 2b 1 0

Saunders, 3b 3 1 3 1 C. Fournier, lf 1 0 0

Manning, 3b 1 0 0 0 Bates, lf 1 1 0

Peake, cf 2 1 1 0

Ingraham, cf 1 0 0 0

Totals 34 12 15 11 Totals 21 2 1 0

Trenton 151 410 0 – 12

Orono 000 020 0 – 2

E-Shea, Wessel; Dunton, McAleer; LOB-Trenton 7, Orono 6; 2B-Shea, Ciomei, Henry, Marks; SF-N. Swanson, Alexander; SB-Henry 3, Ciomei

Trenton IP H R ER BB SO

Merrill (W) 5 1 2 0 2 4

Gale 2 0 0 0 0 0

Orono IP H R ER BB SO

Dunton (L) 3 1/3 13 10 10 1 0

Honey 3 2/3 2 2 2 2 1

HBP-Lukas 3 (by Merrill 2, by Gale); PB-Marks 2; T-2:05; ATT-50

ACADIANS 6, TWINS 4

(Saturday’s Second Game, 8 innings)

Trenton (3-0) Orono (1-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Wessel, ss 5 0 0 0 Honey, cf 5 1 1

Ciomei, rf 5 1 3 1 Duncan, rf 4 0 0

Henry, 1b-p 3 0 0 1 Lukas, p-ss 4 0 0

N. Swanson, p-1b 4 1 1 0 Leland, ss-p 4 0

Marks, c 3 1 2 0 A. Fournier, 1b 4 1 0

Saunders, c 0 1 0 0 McAleer, 3b 3 0 0

Shea, 2b 4 0 1 1 Jones, 2b 4 0 0

Alexander, 3b 4 1 1 0 LeBreton, c 3 0

J. Swanson, pr 0 0 0 0 Keezer, ph 0 0

Merrill, lf 3 1 2 0 C. Fournier, lf 3 1 0

Peake, cf 3 0 1 2

Totals 34 6 11 5 Totals 34 4 11 1

Trenton 300 000 12 – 6

Orono 010 211 00 – 4

E-Henry; Leland; LOB-Trenton 8, Orono 10; 2B-Ciomei; Jones 3B-Ciomei; DP-Lukas-A. Fournier; SB-Peake, Marks, Shea, Merrill

Trenton IP H R ER BB SO

N. Swanson 5 2/3 9 4 4 2 4

Hale 1/3 1 0 0 0 0

Henry (W) 2 1 0 0 1 4

Orono IP H R ER BB SO

Lukas 7 9 4 4 2 3

Leland (L) 1 2 2 2 1 1

HBP-C. Fournier (by N. Swanson); PB-Marks 3; T-2:15; ATT-75