WINSLOW — The Winslow and Waterville high school baseball teams met twice in the regular season, each time a Winslow win. When they played on Friday afternoon at Jack Nivision Field for the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B baseball championship, the Panthers were eager to change the script.
“This is the third time we played Winslow this year, and we really weren’t going to lose three in a row to them. That’s never happened before,” Waterville junior Brian Bellows said.
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Bellows’ effort on the mound was a big reason the Black Raiders didn’t earn a sweep of their rivals. Bellows pitched five innings of shutout ball, and was helped by strong defense and an opportunistic offense, as Waterville took a 10-0 win in a game shortened to six innings because of the mercy rule.
“We didn’t expect him to come out here and dominate like that. His spots, his location, his changeup, everything. He was keeping them off balance,” Waterville coach Don Sawyer said.
The win gave Waterville its fourth consecutive conference title.
“Four in a row. We were talking to the kids about that. Our seniors, Tyler (Bouchard) and Racean (Wood) have played in every single one and not lost one of them. That’s quite an accomplishment on their part,” Sawyer said.
The Panthers (13-3) are the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Class B playoffs and will host No. 13 Presque Isle (6-10) on Tuesday in the preliminary round. Winslow (13-3), the No. 2 seed, will play either No. 10 Old Town (7-9) or No. 7 Washington Academy (10-6) in the quarterfinals Thursday.
Waterville led 6-0 after four innings. The Panthers had just four hits at the time, but five Winslow errors led to five unearned runs.
“We gave up a lot of runs, which hurt us badly early. It definitely took us out of the game early,” Winslow coach Jesse LaCasse said.
Bellows was shaky to start, giving up back-to-back singles to Gabe Smith and Don Camp to start the bottom of the first inning. After Camp was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice for the first out, Bellows got a double play ball to end the inning.
Waterville’s lefty then mowed down 10 hitters in a row before Ryan Dubois singled with one out in the fifth. Bellows needed just 43 pitches to get through five innings, before giving way to A.J. Godin in the sixth.
“I’ve kept the pitch count low this year,” Bellows, who struck out three and walked none, said. “The curveball was forcing the popups, really, but the outside corner was where I was hitting on my strikeouts most of the time.”
Added LaCasse: “(Bellows) does a great job of putting the ball on the inside corner of the plate. He hits the corner. He’s one of the few who pitches in this league that actually comes in and comes in hard. He can hit that spot, and there’s not a lot of pitchers who can do that.”
Dan Pooler scored a pair of runs for Waterville, and drove in one. Aidan FitzGerald had two hits and drove in three runs for the Panthers.
The win was Waterville’s fourth shutout in seven games.
“A great win like this gives us a lot of composure and confidence going into the playoffs,” Bellows said.
Gabe Smith had two hits for Winslow.
“We’ve got three strong days to prepare for a big game next Thursday, which I see as an advantage for us. We’re able to scout on Tuesday and come with our best on Thursday. I have no doubt the team can put this one behind them,” Lacasse said.
Boys lacrosse
Messalonskee 26, Mt. Blue 3: Josh Towle scored six goals and Ben Weeks added five as the Eagles cruised to a KVAC A win in Farmington.
Jose Languet added four goals, while Jordon Holmes, James Varney and Josh Yannelli each had two for Messalonskee (8-4). Allan Walsh, Dylan Jones and Will Weeks also had one goal each. Jake Smith and Elijah Tuell combined for 13 saves for the Eagles.
Sam Taylor, Ryan Rouillard and Tyler Lecours all scored for Mt. Blue (1-11).
Eastern B boys tennis
No. 11 Washington 3, No. 2 Waterville 2: Ilyas Kahn won at No. 2 singles and Tharadol Kamuta won at No. 3 but the Panthers lost their quarterfinal match Thursday.
Weiyan Huang won at No. 1 singles for Washington, while Micah McBrine and Jesus Ojeda won at No. 1 doubles and Tucker Sheen and Ben Somes won at No. 2.
Western C girls tennis
No. 7 Carrabec 3, No. 2 Winthrop 2: The Cobras won at No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles and won No. 2 doubles by forfeit to beat the Ramblers in a quarterfinal in Winthrop.
The Cobras advance to play at No. 6 Waynflete at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Amber Pritchard and Emma Spahr won singles matches for Winthrop. Hannah Atwood won at No. 3 singles for Carrabec and the No. 1 doubles team of Maeve Weggler and Kathleen Swihart won to help the Cobras earn the win.
MVC softball championship
Oak Hill 12, Madison 8: Alyssa Rouleau went 5 for 5 with a triple, a double and three RBIs to lead the Raiders in the Mountain Valley Conference championship game at St. Dominic Regional High School.
Kortni Michaud went 4 for 5 with an RBI for the Raiders as well. Brooke LeBel also went 4 for 5 with four singles and an RBI for Oak Hill as well.
Erika Parker had a double, two singles and three RBIs to lead Madison.
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