HEBRON – Chris Roy spent the first half of Tuesday’s baseball game doing what the typical freshman bench player would do.
He collected foul balls.
It was on one of his excursions, down over an enbankment in a wet, wooded area behind home plate, when he was summoned by a teammate. Starting leftfielder Alex Waite was injured attempting to steal second base in the bottom of the fourth inning and wasn’t able to return.
One inning later, Roy broke open a close game by belting a two-run double to deep left-center field. Roy’s clutch hit and a solid pitching effort by lefty Corey Saunders helped Oxford Hills defeat Brunswick 7-1.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to play,” said Roy of his role as a freshman on the varsity squad. “I’ll take it just to get a game in.”
The Vikings (12-3) led 2-1 entering the fifth inning. With runners on first and second, Chris Jennings hit a sinking liner to left. Brunswick leftfielder Tom Prunick tried to snag the ball in the air, but came up short. As the ball bounded past him, both runners scored and Jennings ended up on second base and Oxford Hills led 4-1.
Brunswick coach Peter Blake elected to intentionally walk clean-up hitter Matt McDonnell and pitch to Roy. Roy jumped all over the first pitch he saw from starter Justin Clark (7-1) and drove it deep in the gap. That was also the last pitch delivered by Clark who left the mound after yielding seven hits and a pair of walks.
“The first pitch was right down the middle and I hit it,” said Roy. “I thought it was the key play in the game,” added Viking coach Shane Slicer. “At 4-1 it was a ballgame. With the way Corey was pitching, it put the game out of reach.”
Saunders (5-2) wasn’t over powering, but he was effective. He spotted his curveball and used a tailing fastball to limit the Dragons (10-6) to five hits while walking just two batters.
“This year he’s really improved on his pitching,” said Slicer. “He got them off balance and didn’t walk many.”
The Dragons reached Saunders for their lone run in the third. Third baseman Ben Jacobs beat out an infield single with two outs and scored on an infield error. Saunders pitched his way out of jams in innings three and four. Over the last three innings only one Dragon reached second.
The Vikings threatened for big innings in the third and fourth, but could only come up with single runs in each inning despite having seven batters reach base in that time. Clark received some nice defensive help behind him as Derek Varney was cut down at home and Waite was eliminated trying to steal second.
An RBI groundout by Kyle Keniston tied the game in the third and Waite gave the Vikings the lead for good with a run-scoring single in the fourth.
“We had our chances early,” said Blake. “You’re not going to come back when you’re down four or five against them.”
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