AUBURN – Brady Blackman didn’t get to conclude his pitching performance with the complete-game exclamation point he wanted to apply Monday. The St. Dom’s junior ace didn’t enjoy the beginning he would have ordered from a Hollywood screen writer, either.
As for the fixings Blackman served up with that sandwich, well, they’ll do.
Buoyed by the Saints’ five-run, two-out rally in the bottom of the third inning, Blackman didn’t allow a North Yarmouth Academy hit over his final three frames in a 10-5 Western Maine Conference baseball triumph.
“I wasn’t hitting my spots to start the game,” Blackman said, “but then I started getting ahead in the count and I was just cruising.”
Blackman struck out 14 and walked only three, one intentionally. The rugged right-hander fanned the final five hitters he faced and threw 69 of his 103 pitches for strikes.
And while he didn’t get to ring up the final out of a crisp, overcast afternoon, Blackman did the next best thing, leaping at third base to snare a line drive off the bat of pinch hitter Harry Plumer to end a mild seventh-inning threat and ice the Saints’ third win without a blemish this spring.
“The best pitch in baseball is a first-pitch strike,” said St. Dom’s coach Allan Turgeon. “Brady’s location was pretty good after that first inning.”
St. Dom’s gave Blackman peace of mind with the five-run outburst against NYA senior Tim DeLuca in the third. No. 9 hitter Peter Lewis drew a four-pitch walk to start the commotion, although DeLuca appeared to regain command when he lured Jake Albert into a harmless fly to right field and coaxed Mike Carpenter’s pop-up to short.
Jon Rutt ripped the first of his two doubles off the wall in left center field to score Lewis, however, and Blackman followed with an opposite-field line drive to right that tied it.
NYA then failed to convert a fielder’s choice at second base on John Emerson’s slow roller to shortstop. Justin Fongemie made the Panthers pay with a seeing-eye slapper past DeLuca that died in the dirt, allowing pinch runner Ryan Gilbert to race all the way from second on the infield single and give the Saints the lead for keeps.
Brent Cary finished the flurry with a two-run double.
It gave St. Dom’s the emotional edge in a clash of two of the traditional top WMC teams, both learning on the fly with rosters dominated by underclassmen.
“We’re two very similar teams,” Turgeon said. “Maybe you could say from this that we have just a little bit more (experience) than they do right now.”
Rutt and Albert, the two seniors in the St. Dom’s lineup, were a combined 6-for-7 with three runs scored and two RBIs. Blackman drove in three runs. Fongemie, who didn’t play baseball last spring, scored twice and pitched the seventh inning, striking out two.
Leadoff hitter Lenny Pierce scored two runs and stole two bases for the Panthers (1-2). James Connors cracked a two-run single in the seventh inning. DeLuca delivered an RBI in a two-run first for NYA.
“We lost six seniors who started all of last year, seven seniors who were in the lineup at some point during the season,” said NYA coach Bruce Poliquin. “We’re a very different ball club. If we can get into the (Class D) tournament, hopefully by the end of the year we’ll make a run.”
St. Dom’s finishes this week with three games in four days, capped by a trip to NYA.
“I guess it’s good for me to start resting up,” Blackman said. “I’ll be ready for them again on Saturday.”
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