GARDINER — It was a pitch Maranacook’s Eben Ballard would like to have back and one Gardiner’s Aaron Toman was happy to see.
With two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth inning, Ballard threw a 2-2 changeup which Toman deposited in left-center for a double. It proved the difference in the game as the Tigers won 3-1 in the Class B baseball opener for both teams Wednesday.
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“I threw two fastballs and blew it by him,” Ballard said. “I don’t know why, we just went to offspeed and it wasn’t a good choice.”
Toman also picked up the pitching victory with help in the seventh inning from Dennis Meehan, who retired the last two batters with runners on second and third. The senior right-hander allowed five hits, walked three and struck out five.
“I felt pretty good,” Toman said. “I’m usually pretty accurate. As the game progressed, I felt more confident on the mound.”
The Tigers did little with Ballard until the fourth inning. To that point they hadn’t had a hit or gotten the ball out of the infield. Frank Chepke opened the fourth with a bunt single toward second base.
“There was no outs and I saw the first baseman playing back so I decided to lay it down there,” Chepke said.
Chepke stole second and, for the first time, Ballard appeared unnerved. He sandwiched walks to Meehan and Hunter Belanger around a strikeout, setting the stage for Toman’s double.
“That’s baseball,” Maranacook coach Jared Lemieux said of the pitch Toman hit. “Sometimes you do your best to fool guys and they get on the right page.”
Lemieux brought in senior Ryan Vanek for the final two innings and he retired six of the seven batters he faced. Both he and Ballard are nursing injuries, Ballard a knee and Vanek a sore elbow.
“It’s early in the season ,” Lemieux said of Ballard. “I can’t lose him for the rest of the season, he’s our horse. I needed Ryan to pitch today so he can be prepared to start on Monday. Eben and Ryan, overall today, it was a good outing for them. One bad pitch led to three runs.”
The Black Bears scored their run in the third inning after leadoff batter Nate Johnson drew a one-out walk. He stole second, went to third on an overthrow and scored on Ballard’s infield hit.
The Tigers played sound defense behind Toman. Belanger threw Tucker Whitman out at the plate in the first inning on Ballard’s slow roller to third. Ian Lane, who was filling in for Toman at first base, made three strong plays, the best a full stretch on Belanger’s throw to nip Nick Lacasse in the fifth inning.
“Toman pitched great game,” first-year Gardiner coach Chris McLaughlin said. “We told him to throw strikes, I put a good defense behind him and that’s exactly what he did. In this league if you throw strikes and play defense, you’ll win a lot of ball games.”
Gary Hawkins — 621-5638
ghawkins@centralmaine.com
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