Well, in a baseball sense, anyway.

The pitcher has been a stalwart for Poland Regional High School and for his Tri-Town American Legion baseball team the past few seasons. Thursday, Johnson gripped Tri-Town’s season between the nimble fingers of his left hand.

Friday, it will be someone else’s turn.

Johnson scattered nine hits and allowed three runs over 8 2/3 innings in front of a nearly spotless defensive effort as Tri-Town remained alive in the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination state American Legion baseball tournament with a 6-3 win over Saco-Biddeford Savings at the Wainwright Complex in South Portland.

“We’re pretty deep on the pitching side,” Tri-Town assistant coach Bob Hubbard said. “We have guys who can throw all nine, we have guys who can some in a couple innings each and get through it. It was good for Luke, he struggled early, but he settled in and thew some pitches and was efficient the rest of the way.”

“Usually it takes me one or two innings to get into a groove,” Johnson said. “Every mound is different for me. I need to find my placement and get my stride down. It seemed to be about the third or fourth inning I got into the zone I wanted to. I was able to pick up the velocity a bit and get a few strikeouts.”

Beyond Johnson’s prowess on the bump, the Tri-Town defense sparkled in his rear view mirror.

“Defensively, they made some very good plays,” Saco-Biddeford coach Keith LeBlanc said. “They kept us to one base when it could have been two, got some outs, and just made some very good defensive plays. It kept their pitcher’s count pretty low and he was able to stay in the game a long time.”

Johnson worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, and set down six of seven batters in the second and third, before running into trouble in the fourth. Corey Brown and Colin Lavigne hit the first two of four singles that inning for Saco-Biddeford, and each scampered home, one on a ground-out to first and the other on the fourth single of the inning by rival starter Casey Twomey.

The two runs cut the Tri-Town lead to one, but a slick play on a fielder’s choice limited the damage.

“We were solid behind him defensively,” Hubbard said. “We had some balls drop in there behind him, but we were able to hit cutoffs, focus on fundamentals and keep guys to singles when they could have been doubles and did what we needed to do.”

Tri-Town scored its three runs in the bottom of the third on two errors, two walks and a hit; Kaleb Bunker, Matt Rabasco and Ethan Cailler crossed the plate.

“Early on we struggled having multiple-hit games,” Hubbard said. “We had one or two guys step up and do their thing. In the tournament, we’ve been good with that so far.”

Tri-Town added a run on two hits and a walk in the sixth, and two runs on two hits, a walk and an error in the seventh to build a four-run advantage.

“It got us over that hump,” Hubbard said. “We had a couple of situations where we had a couple guys on and couldn’t quite get that timely hit to blow out a big inning, but at the same time, there were a few times they got a few guys on, too, and we were able to hold them.”

Saco-Biddeford added its final run in the eighth on Tri-Town’s lone error and a subsequent Lavigne single, but the defense again limited the damage. Brandon Hubbard got the final out of the game with two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, striking out Nate Huot on four pitches.

Tri-Town advanced in the loser’s bracket to Friday’s 11 a.m. contest at the Wainwright Complex, where it will face Staples Crossing of Saco.

Copy the Story Link