MONMOUTH — The Monmouth Academy Mustangs facing the Sacopee Valley Hawks in the Class C South baseball tournament has become a yearly tradition.

For the third straight year, the two teams squared off Saturday. 

“Three years in a row, two years ago we beat them when we shouldn’t have,” Sacopee Valley coach Eric Anderson said. “They came down last year and probably beat us when they shouldn’t have. This year I knew, I didn’t expect nine innings, three to two, but I knew it was going to be a nail-bitter.”

The Mustangs entered the game 17-0, but the dugout was quiet after the Hawks upset the top-seeded Mustangs, 3-2, in nine innings.

“We didn’t say anything for quite a while,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said. “I told them, I said, ‘There’s only one Class C team that’s going to end on a win. We are fortunate enough that this is the first loss that we have had. It is what it is.”

Last year, the Mustangs won in Hiram, 6-1. The previous season, in the regional semifinal round, the Hawks came back from a 5-1 deficit to win 8-6.

Throwing errors cost the Mustangs runs, including in the top of the ninth with the game tied at two. With one out, Cam Cyr reached as a throw from shortstop Gage Cote Travis Hartford off the first base bag. After a walk to D.J. Shea, Brady Anderson, hitting out of the three hole, hit a single that brought in Cyr.

“I knew I faced him a few times before that,” Anderson said. “I had a few good cuts off of him and I knew that all I needed to do was knock in a base hit to drive in that run. My (approach) was to shorten up, drive the ball to the outfield and hope for the best.”

Palleschi went to the mound before the Anderson at bat to see how his starter was doing.

“Hunter’s response was, ‘I have one more (batter),’ and he had gutted it out until then,” Palleschi said. “I thought we owed it to him to see if he can get that last one. The kid is a very good hitter, Brady is a great hitter. There’s a reason why he’s one of the best hitters in the (WMC) conference. We knew that.”

Richardson was lifted for Cote, who got out of the jam without throwing a pitch as he picked off Anderson at first base.

The Mustangs wouldn’t go down without a fight in the bottom of the ninth inning. With one out, Hartford singled. He was awarded second base when Hawks left handed starter Roderick Maynard had his third balk of the game with Mat Foulke at the plate. Hartford moved to third on a Foulke single. A Devon Poisson sac bunt moved Foulke to second, but Hartford couldn’t go home on the play.

Sacopee (15-3) intentionally walked Cote, the leadoff hitter, to load the bases with two outs. Nick Dovinsky tried to put the ball through the hole in the left side of the infield, but the younger Anderson, who was playing short, made a routine put out to first to end the game.

“(Maynard) was getting better and better as the game went on,” Palleschi said. “Toward the end there, I thought he might have got a little tired. We started to put more balls in play and I thought our kids did a great job of battling for the first four or five innings after the first (couple) times through the order. They did a great battling, putting the bat on the ball and we found some holes, I thought they did a great job there.”

Monmouth had its chances, including the bottom of the eighth inning. Richardson had a one-out double. Chandler Harris, who drove in Richardson in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at two, had the opportunity to drive him home for the game-winning run, but Harris struck out swinging on Maynard’s 18th and final strikeout of the game.

Maynard went the distance, allowing eight hits, allowing three walks and according to coach Anderson, throwing 150 pitches.

“I have been very cautious with Roderick all year long,” Eric Anderson said. “I only gave him one side (session) every week to keep strong for the playoffs. I never ever had a pitcher throw one-hundred and fifty pitches and I don’t want to do it, but he was still throwing strikes. He’s a gritty kid and he deserves it, he really earned it.”

Monmouth also got their first run in the bottom of the sixth when Richardson drove in Dovinsky also in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Anderson gave the Hawks the 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth as his double to right center drove in Devin Day. In the same inning Maynard reached on a throwing error by Foulke who was the second baseman that scored Anderson.

“Brady is a senior, he’s a captain, he’s probably one of our one or two top hitters on the team,” Eric Anderson said. “He always picks up in the playoffs. I think this is the seniors tenth playoff game and I think he’s batting over five hundred in four years in the playoffs.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com

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