HERMON — The Erskine Academy baseball team went into the bottom of the seventh inning with a six-run lead over Hermon, but the Eagles needed what head coach Lars Jonassen called the best catch he’s ever seen to pull out a 7-6 victory in the Class B North regional semifinals.

The Hawks rallied to score five runs and cut Erskine’s lead to one, and had two on with two out when Garrett Trask drove a deep fly ball to right center field. Erskine center fielder Cody Taylor ran it down and made an over the shoulder catch to preserve the win and send the Eagles to the regional final.

“If Cody doesn’t catch it I assume the guy scores from first and they win the game. I’ve never seen a better catch,” Jonassen said.

No. 3 Erskine, now 15-3, will face No. 1 Old Town (15-3) Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium. No. 2 Hermon ends the season at 14-4. According to Jonassen, this is the program’s first trip to a regional final in several years. The last one came when the Eagles played in Western Class C, he said.

“That was a long time ago,” Jonassen said.

Dylan Presby’s bases loaded triple in the top of the fourth inning gave Erskine a 5-0 lead. Presby had a pair of hits and earned the save. Noah Bonsant pitched five innings for the win.

“Noah had a steady performance. He pitched to contact,” Jonassen said.

Trask, Matt Leach and Keith Pomeroy each had two hits for Hermon.


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