LEWISTON — Top-seeded Monmouth Academy survived and advanced with a 7-6 victory over fifth-seeded Maranacook in a Class C South baseball regional semifinal Saturday night at Lewiston High School.
“Anytime there’s something different — that’s not part of our routine — we seem to come out a little lethargic,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said.
Maranacook entered the top of the seventh down 7-2, but Monmouth reliever Kyle Palleschi walked two batters, and with two outs, River Fallos singled home Grant Walters to cut the deficit to four. Kody Goucher walked to load the bases, and Caldre Glowa hit a three-run double to get the Black Bears within one.
“Anytime we’ve been down, we had a fire in our bellies, and we don’t quit,” Maranacook coach Eric Brown said. “We never quit, and have gone after it. I said, ‘Let’s go get them.'”
Kyle Palleschi then got a strikeout to send the defending Class C state champions into a regional final rematch with second-seeded Sacopee Valley on Tuesday at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.
The Black Bears (12-6) got things going offensively with two outs in the bottom of the second when Robbie Vivenzio reached on an error, and Grady Hreben sent a ball to deep right for a double to score Vivenzio. Monmouth starter Sam Calder got out of the inning with a groundout.
“We tried not to let the scoreboard affect us,” Monmouth’s Luke Harmon said. “Especially when we were down 2-0 in the second and third innings, and the last inning, too. It’s always stressful in those moments when you are like, ‘Oh, we got to pull this out.'”
The Mustangs (17-1) tried to spark a two-out rally of their own when Levi Leverdiere singled and tried to reach third when Brandon Smith dropped a bunt single, but the throw to third beat him to end the inning.
Maranacook capitalized on Monmouth’s mistakes in the top of the third. Takota Lemelin reached first on a dropped third strike. He stole second and third and scored on a Walker Dumas single to center for a 2-0 lead.
“We have been preaching confidence all year long, and they are a confident group,” Brown said. “When we got that lead, we started to see the confidence level rise. It was a game that we had a very good chance of taking the win.”
Dumas got stranded at third.
Errors hampered Maranacook in the third after Kyle Palleschi led off with a double. Jake Harmon reached on a throwing error to score Palleschi. Luke Harmon singled home his brother and reached second on an error in the outfield to tie the game.
“The key to my success at the plate tonight was keeping my front foot down and finding a seam on the baseball, and keeping it simple,” Luke Harmon said.
Luke Harmon moved to third on a groundout while Noah Schultz walked and stole second. Rory Foyt walked to load the bases with one out but Fallos, Maranacook’s starting pitcher, recorded a strikeout and got a flyout to end the threat.
In the fourth, Calder had a two-out ground-rule double to left that scored Jake Harmon — who singled — to take the 3-2 lead. Luke Harmon — who reached on a walk — also thought he scored, but the umpires said he didn’t score in time and had to go back to third. Fallos got out of the jam with a groundout.
Brandon Chilton had an infield single and stole second and third but got stranded 90 feet away in the top of the fifth.
Maranacook pitchers had three walks to load the bases in the bottom half of the fifth. Hreben came in to relieve Fallos in the middle of the inning, and Kyle Palleschi’s fly ball was fumbled to allow a run to score. Jake Harmon sent a grounder into right field to score two more Mustangs. Luke Harmon had an RBI ground-rule double for a 7-2 lead.
“I came off a low performance against Lisbon in our quarterfinal game, and we had practice at Ingersoll (indoor turf facility in Auburn), and I made a couple of tweaks to my swing,” Jake Harmon said. “I was keeping it more simple in the batter’s box, shortening my stride, and it paid off.”
Eric Palleschi said the Harmon brothers and Calder came through at the plate when the Mustangs needed them.
“They have been hitting all year long — that part of our order has been pretty good,” Eric Palleschi said. “It was nice when they stepped up when we needed them. Sammy had a nice double down the line, Jake and Luke had a nice double.”
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