TURNER – Fresh off a thrilling comeback win in their season opener Wednesday, Leavitt coach Dave Morin expected his team to be ready for their home opener against Messalonskee on a windy Friday afternoon.
The Hornets came out flat instead and committed seven errors in an 11-3 loss.
“That’s a perfect example of a team not ready to play ball,” Leavitt coach Dave Morin said. “I thought Wednesday’s game (a 3-1 win over Morse) was a good game and a character builder, but today, the team just wasn’t into it mentally. We kicked the ball around a lot.”
Eagles’ starter R.J. Moore threw five hitless innings, striking out seven and walking five in 82 pitches. Chris Gagne and Mark McCann stroked two hits apiece for Messalonskee (1-1).
“When he throws strikes, he’s really tough to hit,” Eagles coach Jon Moody said of Moore. “He throws right around 80 MPH and he’s got a decent curve ball, which he didn’t throw too well today. But he threw strikes when he had to.”
The two teams’ pitching staffs combined for 16 walks. The difference was that Moore buckled down when he had to and the Eagles made the plays behind him to help him get out of trouble, while the Hornets (1-1) did not.
The second and fourth innings were typical examples. Leavitt starter Chris Brewer seemed to be wiggling his way out of a bases-loaded, none out jam in the second with back-to-back Ks, but McCann beat out an infield grounder to the shortstop to make it 1-0. That extended the inning for back-to-back walks that plated two more runs.
Moore yielded consecutive two-out walks in the bottom of the frame, but caught Brent Parker looking on strikes to end that threat.
Messalonskee added three more in the fourth, with a fielding error at short accounting for one of the runs. Matt Seel knocked a two-run single and Gagne added an RBI single to make it 6-0.
Moore yielded back-to-back walks again, this time to lead off the bottom of the fourth, to Kurt Knight and Adam Sawyer. Knight was thrown out trying to steal second, however, and Sawyer was stranded at first with a pop-up to short and a strikeout.
The Eagles plated two more unearned runs in the sixth. This time, Moore gave way to the bullpen, which was fine by the Hornets. They immediately greeted reliever Mike Jacques with their only four hits of the game, doubles by Brewer and Sean Doyle and singles by Pat Rines and Jeremy Pettingill. Jeff McMullen came on in relief to retire four of the final five batters.
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