GARDINER — The Winslow and Gardiner high school baseball teams entered Saturday morning’s Early Bird Special game almost tied in the Eastern Maine Class B Heal point standings. Winslow had less than a point lead on the Tigers in the race for fourth place in the region.

By lunch time, the Black Raiders had opened some space between themselves and the Tigers.

Eight Winslow batters had at least one hit, and the Black Raiders pounded out 13 hits as a team to take an 11-0 win in this key Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B game.

“We let them in the door early. The smelled it, and give them credit. They hit the ball and they found the holes,” Gardiner (7-3) coach Chris McLaughlin said. “We didn’t play our game today. We didn’t play defense. We didn’t throw strikes. We walked too many batters. They came ready to play and we didn’t.”

It was the fifth time in 10 games the Black Raiders (8-2) scored at least 10 runs, and the team has bought in to first-year coach Jesse LaCasse’s aggressive hitting style.

“This year it’s really coming together,” said Joe Hopkins, who went 4 for 5 with four RBIs to give himself eight hits in his last three games. “Be aggressive. Get on top of the pitcher. Hit the ball. Get that fastball and just hit it.”

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LaCasse said he was happy to see his team shrug off Friday’s 10-5 loss to Lincoln, a loss that snapped a seven-game win streak.

“It was a huge bounce back after (Friday), because yesterday was a tough loss for us. We really weren’t swinging the bats well. We came out aggressive and swinging the bats well today, which was good to see,” LaCasse said.

The Black Raiders scored three runs in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to break open what had been a close game. Hopkins hit a two-run double in the fifth to make it 5-0 Winslow, and his two-run single in the sixth pushed the lead to 8-0. Dylan Hapworth had three runs batted in for Winslow. Gabe Smith scored three runs, and Mike McLaughlin and Don Camp each scored twice.

They key to the game came in the first inning. After Winslow scored an unearned run in the top of the inning, Gardiner loaded the bases with nobody out. Jake Palmer led off with an infield single, and Camp issued back-to-back walks to Brandon Chaput and Dennis Meehan.

“I just knew I had to throw strikes and I had a good defense behind me,” Camp said.

Camp struck out Josh Mashke and Aaron Toman, then got a popup from Hunter Belanger to get out of the inning without a scratch.

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“That’s not the first time he’s pitched out of a jam. He’s a very confident pitcher on the mound,” LaCasse said.

Added Coach McLaughlin: “That first inning they scored an unearned run. You take that away, and we had bases loaded with no outs. You push a couple of those across and the next thing you know, we’re playing our type of baseball.”

Camp held Gardiner to four hits, striking out three and walking three. After the first inning, only one more Tiger made it as far as third base, Palmer in the seventh inning.

“I really worked on my changeup to keep them off balance. Mixing it up and just keeping them guessing just worked all the game,” Camp said.

Toman started and worked into the fifth inning for Gardiner. Three Tiger pitchers combined to walk eight Black Raiders.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com


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