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READFIELD — As the two swapped places in the middle of the sixth inning, Eric Brown and John Novak had a brief exchange indicative of how this game had gone from the opening pitch.

“I hope you brought your blood-pressure medicine today,” Brown, Maranacook’s baseball coach, jokingly told Novak, his Winthrop counterpart.

For both good and bad — big hits, strikeouts, errors, blown leads, big comebacks — this was a game that caused a lot of stress. In the end, the Black Bears erased a five-run deficit to claim a 12-11 walk-off victory in an early season Class C South showdown.

“We kept our energy up,” said freshman Alex Spaulding, whose winning RBI single scored River Fallos. “Even though we were down, we fought through it so we could get this big win.”

How it happened

• After Maranacook (3-2) took a 4-1 lead to the third inning, the Black Bears put themselves in a big hole. The Ramblers scored eight runs in the third despite getting just two hits, taking advantage of three walks, two hit batters and two errors. 

• Will Watson’s home run changed the game. With Maranacook down 9-5 in the fourth inning, the freshman blasted a three-run shot to right field to bring the Black Bears within a run.

• After Maranacook’s Caldre Glowa was thrown out at home on a hit by Fallos with the game tied at 11 in the seventh, Spaulding singled up the middle to drive in Fallos.

“The freshmen have been great for us this year,” Brown said. “We have a strong, young corps of them, and they’ve been wonderful. They’ve been following the instruction and taking the advice that we’ve been giving them, and with the natural talent they have, it’s coming together.”

What it means

• Maranacook completed a regular-season sweep of Winthrop by defeating the Ramblers for the second time this week. The Black Bears won 6-1 at Winthrop on Monday.

• The Black Bears earned a walk-off win of their own after losing in that fashion Wednesday night. Maranacook lost to Monmouth Academy, 7-6, after leading 6-2.

“The importance (of this game) was to keep our heads high,” Spaulding said. “Even though we lost on a walk-off (yesterday), we had to fight through this game and win.”

They said it

• “We had a great example of how to come back yesterday by Monmouth. They did it to us, and today, I said to my guys, ‘Guys, we’ve just got to keep plugging away, and we’ll get there.’ That’s a step-by-step thing, but they did; we chipped away at it, and we got the crucial hits.” — Eric Brown.

• “(The home run) felt great (off the bat). It was the first home run of my high school baseball career, and it felt good.” — Will Watson.

• Winthrop coach John Novak declined comment.

Stat leaders

• Winthrop: Trent Collin (3B, 2B, 1B), Jaxon August (2B, 2 1B; 1 2/3 IP, L, 2 K), Brody Adams (2 2B), Finn Barrett (1B; 3 2/3 IP, 5 ER)

• Maranacook: Will Watson (HR, 1B), Cam Jones (3 1B), River Fallos (2 1B; 8 K, 5 BB, 5 ER), Grady Hreben (2 1B)

Up next

• Winthrop: vs. Madison (3-1), 4 p.m. Monday

• Maranacook: vs. Boothbay (1-3), 4 p.m. Monday