WATERVILLE — There was no doubt that both the Waterville and Winslow high school baseball teams were playoff bound. After Waterville’s 10-2 win in their rivalry game at Gaul Field on Wednesday, both teams have a clearer idea of where they stand in the Eastern Class B playoff race.

Waterville (14-1) firmed up its hold on the No. 1 spot in the region, and likely will go into the tournament as the East’s top seed. Winslow (10-5) needed a win to ensure the third seed and avoid preliminary round game. Now, it looks as if the Black Raiders will go into the playoffs as the fourth or fifth seed.

“Definitely, some errors early cost us, got (Waterville) going,” Winslow coach Jesse LaCasse said. “You’ve got to hand it to their pitcher. Not an overpowering guy, but he throws a lot of strikes, and he throws timing off for hitters, big time.”

That pitcher was Waterville’s J.T. Whitten, who went the distance to earn the win. He allowed five hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out one. Early in the game, Whitten set down 10 Black Raiders in a row, before Winslow strung together a few hits in the fifth inning.

“I felt pretty good today,” Whitten said.

After Kaleb Kane drove in Aidan Fitzgerald with a sacrifice fly to center field in the second for a 1-0 Waterville lead, the Purple Panthers added four runs in the third, and three more in the fourth to push the lead to 8-0. Fitzgerald’s two-run single in the third was a big hit, and all three Waterville runs in the fourth were unearned.

While Waterville committed an uncharacteristic three errors, the Panthers turned in some defensive gems, too. Lance Lefebvre had a nice game at second base, going to his backhand to rob Gabe Smith of a hit to lead off the sixth inning. Kane, Waterville’s right fielder, made a pair of strong plays. In the fifth inning, Kane made the catch on Taylor Roy’s sacrifice fly, and quickly got the relay throw in the Tyler Bouchard, who threw to shortstop Matt Lee covering second base to nail Ryan DuBois trying to advance to second base.

In the top of the sixth, Kane made a leaping catch of a Mike McLaughlin line drive to end the inning and keep the Black Raiders off the board.

“They were hitting the ball really well, we were just in the right place for a couple of them, that’s for sure,” Waterville coach Don Sawyer said.

One play prior to his jumping catch, Kane held on to the ball after colliding with center fielder Racean Wood. As Winslow took the field for the bottom of the inning, left fielder Joe Hopkins was ejected for arguing the call. Winslow had used up its substitutes and was forced to finish the game with eight players.

Don Camp had a pair of hits for Winslow. Whitten had two hits and scored two runs for Waterville, while Bouchard scored twice. Dan Pooler had two hits and drove in a run for the Panthers.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

 

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