AUGUSTA — Bessey Motors didn’t end the regular season the way it would have liked, losing three straight games after clinching the No. 1 seed in the Zone 2 tournament. 

It may not have brought the same momentum to the tournament as other teams, but it didn’t seem to matter as Bessey Motors was in mid-season form come playoff time. 

Bessey Motors claimed the Zone 2 tournament with a 12-2 victory over seventh-seeded Tri-Town in eight innings Friday, collecting 13 hits. Bessey Motors will be the top seed out of Zone 2 in the state tournament and will play the No. 2 seed from Zone 1 on Wednesday. 

“It was very important for us to get back on a roll,” Bessey Motors coach Shane Slicer said. “We have a good team. You don’t want to go into any tournament not playing well. … It was pretty big for us to win this tournament and not get beat.”

Leading the offensive charge were Riley Chickering and Tyler Curtis, who combined to go 6-for-6 with a home run, two doubles, two RBIs and six runs scored. Curtis doubled and scored in each of his first two at-bats and Chickering belted a solo homer to left in the fifth. 

“In batting practice, I was hitting good,” Curtis said. “I was using a different bat — a wooden bat. I was seeing the ball incredibly well and I just saw it go off the bat.” 

The offense wasted little time, putting three runs on the board in the second inning. A sacrifice fly by Ty Martin scored Chickering from third, and a two-out error at shortstop brought in Aiden Heikkinen and Jacob Spinhirn for a 3-0 lead. 

“Losing the last three games of the regular season kind of got us down,” Chickering said. “We’re getting ourselves back on a winning streak, so to keep ourselves rolling into the state tournament, that’s big.” 

Bessey Motors (19-3) scored the first three and the final nine. Tri-Town (12-10) responded with two runs in the fourth to cut the deficit to 3-2, only to see the top seed scatter nine hits — including two home runs — over the final five innings. Bessey Motors scored a run in each of the last five innings. 

Curtis scored Bessey Motors’ first runs in the fourth and sixth with help from Brady Lafrance. Lafrance singled him home in the fourth and ripped an RBI triple to deep left-center in the sixth. He would later score on a wild pitch to give Bessey Motors a 7-2 lead. 

Lafrance finished 2-for-5 with a triple, two RBIs and a run scored. 

Bessey Motors ballooned its lead to 10-2 in the seventh with more production from the bottom of the order. Emery Chickering came off the bench to single home his older brother. Curtis followed with a sacrifice fly and Jacob Spinhirn roped a single to center to plate Emery Chickering. 

Nick Bowie completed Bessey Motors’ offensive display with a solo home run in the eighth. Both Bowie’s and Chickering’s homers came on 3-1 counts. 

“We were putting better swings on the ball,” Riley Chickering said. “It looked like we were really getting good pitches to drive and we did. We were hitting them hard.” 

Seven different Bessey Motors players collected at least one hit. Bessey Motors recorded multiple hits from the second inning through the seventh. 

“Our approach was pretty good at the plate, I thought,” Slicer said. “We squared a lot up. We hit a couple home runs. We hit the ball hard. I was pleased with our offensive performance.” 

Tri-Town’s two runs in the fourth came unearned on Bessey Motors’ second error of the inning. Kaleb Banker and Ethan Cailler touched home on the throwing error to first. 

Banker was responsible for half Tri-Town’s hits, finishing 2-for-4 with a run scored. 

Blake Slicer went the distance in the victory. He allowed two runs on four hits, striking out five and walking three. 

Tri-Town will play the Zone 1 tournament champion in the first round of the state tournament Wednesday in South Portland. 

“This group of kids has been involved in four state championship games, so I’m glad for them,” Tri-Town coach Harold Bridgham said. “It’s another opportunity for them to get to the place they’ve visited before and I’m thankful for that.” 

Tri-Town 7, Augusta 6

AUGUSTA — The parity in Zone 2 was on display once again as seventh-seeded Tri-Town advanced to the state tournament with a 7-6 victory over Augusta on Friday in a state qualifier.

Tri-Town completed a late-game comeback with a four-run eighth inning. Lucas Johnson broke a 5-5 tie with a two-run double to right, scoring Ethan Callier and Kaleb Bridgham with two outs.

Augusta’s lone error in the eighth fueled Tri-Town’s comeback. A grounder to second base by Matt Rabaaco drew a quick throw to first by Thomas Foster, but his throw went wide of first baseman Taylor Lockhart. The Elks would have ended the inning with a 5-3 lead. Instead, Callier tied the game with a two-run single up the middle.

It was back and forth all afternoon, with Tri-Town taking a 1-0 lead in the first on a Shawn Murphy RBI double to deep left. Tri-Town collected 15 hits a day after posting 16 hits in a mercy-rule shortened contest against Pastime.

When Augusta scored twice in the fourth to grab a 2-1 lead, Tri-Town answered back with two of its own the following inning. Mitchell Davis ripped a two-run single through the left side to score Kaleb Bridgham and Lucas Johnson to restore a 3-2 lead.

Davis finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

The Elks responded with three unanswered runs over the next two innings. Reid Shostak recorded his first of two doubles in the fourth, a two-run variety. He singled in a run in the fifth as Augusta carried a 5-3 into the latter stage of the contest.

Shostak went 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

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