South Portland, ME – CMCC Baseball dropped a tough battle with rival SMCC on the road, 7-4 in a game that effectively determined first place seeding for the upcoming YSCC Tournament. The Mustangs were held off the scoreboard through seven innings before rallying late but could not muster enough offense to complete a comeback.
Max Noto threw seven strong innings for the Seawolves, allowing just one hit and striking out four to pick up the win. Central Maine did draw eight walks to get runners on base but did not drive in any of their runs via hits. Brady Vincent and Teddy McFarland split the game on the mound, with Vincent as starter striking out four and giving up six runs, but only one of them earned.
Both pitchers were in the groove early, with neither team scoring through the first three innings and Southern Maine picking up only one base hit. The hosts finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth. Designated hitter Zach Oliver led off with a double, Tyler Herkalo reached on a dropped third strike, and Adam Rowland was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out. Alex Bean then lined a single up the middle to score two and take the lead.
The next inning was even better for the Seawolves. They again led off the inning by loading the bases before an error by shortstop Lee Robertson allowed two to score on a ground ball by Herkalo. Robertson recovered to get the put out on Rowland with a ground ball coming to him from the very next batter, but Oliver scored on the fielder's choice to make it 5-0. Another ground ball put out, this time to second base, sent Herkalo home to give SMCC a commanding lead.
Noto exited the game after the seventh, being replaced by Connor Boulette. The Mustangs took advantage to spark some offense in the top of the eighth. Brandon Gour drew a leadoff walk and promptly stole second. Hayden Durrell gave the visitors only their second hit of the day with legging out a ground ball to deep short for an infield single. Garren Post then walked to load the bases. Boulette's third walk of the inning, issued to Jake Calver, brought Gour trotting home to erase the zero off CMCC's side of the scoreboard.
That led to another pitching change with Dante Tocci coming in to try and close out the game, but the Mustangs' offense had the bit between their teeth now. Catcher Zac Gorman's grounder up the middle led to an error that plated another run and Shane Jewett was plunked by a pitch to bring Post in and keep the bases loaded. The Seawolves couldn't force an out at second on Robertson's ground ball to short, which scored Calver, and suddenly Central Maine was down just 6-4.
SMCC made the comeback attempt a little bit harder in the bottom half of the inning by driving in another run. An error and a bloop single put runners on the corners for Tocci, who helped his own cause with a sac-bunt to score Jayson Collado.
There was no ninth inning magic for the Mustangs in this one. Brendan Mahaney got on with a ground ball to third that cause an error, but a strike out of Calver ended the game and gave Tocci the save.
Southern Maine clinches the #1 seed with the victory going into the YSCC Tournament. SMCC ends the regular season with a 12-3 record in conference play while CMCC will be the #2 seed when double elimination play begins next week. Central Maine still has one more regular season game to go against Great Bay Community College before getting to that point. The Mustangs have a quick turnaround, travelling to the Herons on Friday, April 25th. First pitch is scheduled for 7 pm.
