FARMINGDALE — Becca Ackerson gave Mt. Abram an idea of what was to come when she hustled from her second base position to field a single that had fallen behind first base and gunned down the runner trying to stretch the hit into a double.
Two innings later, Ackerson came on in relief to overpower a Roadrunner offense that had taken the lead with five runs in the previous inning and allowed Hall-Dale to rally from a 5-1 deficit for a 6-5 Mountain Valley Conference game victory.
Ackerson tossed three innings of hitless relief, walking one and striking out five to pick up her fifth win of the season. The Bulldogs scored two in the fourth and three in the fifth to improve to 10-2.
“I don’t think we’re a team that’s going to give up,” Ackerson said. “We’re going to keep fighting.”
Trailing 1-0, Mt. Abram (5-7) touched Hall-Dale starter Olivia Maynard for all five of its runs on five straight hits in the fourth inning. Back-to-back doubles by Abbie Brackley and Marya Beedy put the Roadrunners in front, 2-1. Meg Marble followed with a triple down the third base line that scored two, then scored on Bailey Beers’ groundout to make it 5-1.
“We haven’t been hitting the ball well. We really came on there and spanked the ball around a little bit,” said Mt. Abram coach Marc Keller, whose team had won four of its last five. “We’re starting to play a lot better.”
After the inning ended, Hall-Dale coach Steve Acedo huddled with his team a little longer than usual to remind them they still had plenty of time to answer.
“I just told them to get refocused,” Acedo said. “We’ve got good hitters on our team. The bats have been lacking a little bit lately, and I just told them to attack the strikes, get on base, steal a couple of bases, get a couple of timely hits and we’d get right back in the game.”
The Bulldogs got two runs back against Roadrunners pitcher Katie Jordan in the bottom of the frame on an RBI single by Gabrielle Brown and RBI double by Nicole Bodge.
In the fifth, Eva Shepherd scored from third on a pitch that ricocheted off the catcher’s left shin guard and rolled toward the Bulldogs’ dugout. Jill Whynot tied it with a triple to score Maynard, then scored on a passed ball to put the Bulldogs back in front.
“Jill had that timely hit to right field, which was really big,” Acedo said. “She’s been struggling for the last few days. She’s a freshman. It’s been a peaks-and-valleys season for her and she’s trying to claw her way back up and I think that hit will pick her up a little bit.”
Ackerson picked up the Bulldogs with a 1-2-3 fifth. A one-out walk in the sixth was the only blemish on her outing, but she struck out the side to strand the potential tying run at second. She set the Roadrunners down in order again in the seventh on two strikeouts and a nice running catch by Shepherd at shortstop.
“It’s good that we have two pitchers because one of us can start and the other can come finish,” Ackerson said. “We throw different pitches, so once they start catching up to one of us, the other one can come in in relief.”
“Both of them can pitch on any team,” Acedo said. “They started to get the bat on the ball on Olivia and having Becca sitting there ready to go is a big bonus. She comes in with a short warm-up and pounds the strike zone.”
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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