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AUGUSTA – Steamboat Petroleum of Waldo County rebounded from a first-game loss in the American Legion Zone 1 baseball tournament to earn its first trip to the state tournament since 1997.
Now its hoping for a repeat performance.
Steamboat Petroleum remained alive during the 2008 state tourney at McGuire Field on Sunday, pounding out 17 hits in a 14-7 elimination-game victory over Fayette-Staples of Saco.
“That was something we talked about,” said center fielder Miles Davee, whose three-run homer and three-run triple helped the Zone 1 runnerup rebound from a 5-4 loss to Gardiner on Saturday. “We’re just here to have some fun. We’re happy to get one win, and hopefully we can go out in our next game and get another one.”
Zone 1 champion Hampden wasn’t as fortunate Sunday, as Matt Watson hit two home runs to lead Zone 4 runnerup Nova Seafood of Portland to an 11-3 victory over the Riverdogs in a winners’ bracket contest.
Hampden (16-11), like Steamboat Petroleum now 1-1 in the double-elimination tourney, faces an elimination game at 4 p.m. Monday against the winner of a game earlier in the day between Bessey Motors of South Paris and Kennebunk.
Steamboat Petroleum (17-10) was scheduled to play Zone 3 champion Gayton Post of Lewiston late Sunday afternoon, but midday rain that delayed play for more than two hours forced postponement of that contest and the Bessey Motors-Kennebunk game until Monday afternoon, with the Steamboat Petroleum-Gayton game set for a noon first pitch.
Seven different batters had at least two hits each against Fayette-Staples in support of Steamboat Petroleum lefthander Tyler Miles.
Davee had a single in addition to his two bases-clearing blasts, while Josh Nickerson added a solo homer and a single and Miles, Jack Davis, Nate Adams, Gabe Blodgett and Phil Curll each singled twice for coach Emery Shute’s club.
Miles, who had two victories in relief during the Zone 1 tournament, scattered 10 hits while striking out five and walking two during a complete-game pitching effort.
Of the seven runs allowed by the Mount View of Thorndike product, only three were earned.
Fayette-Staples reached Miles for three runs – two unearned – in the top of the first, but after a two-run homer by Steven Trask in the third inning and two unearned runs in the fourth, the lefthander allowed no runs on three hits over the final five innings.
“I started a little shaky,” said Miles. “I wasn’t hitting my spots early, but once we started scoring some runs I settled down.”
RBI singles by Nickerson and Adams in the bottom of the first pulled Steamboat Petroleum within 3-2, but Trask’s blast extended Fayette-Staples lead to 5-2 before the Waldo County-based contingent scored six runs on six hits in the bottom of the inning.
Adams and Ethan McHatten had RBI singles before Davee struck the big blow of the uprising, a bases-loaded double to left-center that drove home Curll, McHatten and Davis.
“It was a curveball,” said Davee. “I was out in front of it. I slapped at it and got the good part of the bat on it.”
Steamboat Petroleum never trailed again, though Fayette-Staples stayed within 9-7 entering the late innings before Davee hit his home run to highlight a five-run seventh.
“I thought it was just a popup,” said Davee of the homer, which cleared the left field fence 315 feet from home plate.
Nova Seafood (22-3) broke open its win over Hampden early, scoring six runs in the top of the second.
Jack Heary sparked that uprising, hitting a 3-2 curveball from Hampden starter Derek Amoroso over the left-field fence for a three-run homer. That was Nova’s fourth hit in the inning, to go with RBI singles by Luke Hammond and Jamie Ross and a leadoff pop single to right-center by Taylor Candage.
Watson hit a leadoff home run to right for Nova Seafood in the fifth, and Heary doubled and scored on a single by Candage to highlight a two-run rally in the top of the seventh that stretched the lead to 9-0.
Cody Miller ended Nova lefty Brad Shafran’s shutout bid with a leadoff homer to left in the bottom of the seventh, and Hampden’s Jordan Richards hit an RBI groundout to plate Caleb Kirk later in the inning. Kirk had been hit by a pitch, sacrificed to second by Brennan Perry and reached third on a wild pitch.
Watson hit his second homer, a two-run shot to right, in the top of the eighth.
Hampden scored its final run in the ninth on consecutive singles by David Piete, Richards and Nolan Turner.
Fayette-Staples (16-11) 302 200 000 – 7 10 2
Steamboat (17-10) 206 001 50x – 14 17 3
S. Trask, Sullivan (7), Leach (7) and Sheehan; Miles and Adams
Nova Seafood (22-3) 060 010 220 – 11 11 1
Hampden (16-16) 000 000 201 – 3 10 2
Shafran and Watson; D. Amoroso, Leal (8) and Richards
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