OAKLAND — On the rare occasions the Messalonskee baseball team has lost this season, the Eagles have bounced back strong.
Messalonskee responded to its first loss of the season to Skowhegan with back-to-back victories before bouncing back to a defeat against Hampden Academy with six in a row. The Eagles did it again Wednesday, following a loss Friday to Camden Hills with a 10-2 victory over Edward Little.
“The message was, ‘Hey, we had six wins after the loss to Hampden last time, so let’s start another streak,’” Messalonskee head coach Eric Palin said. “We did a little short math there, and if we do one better and win seven in a row now, that puts us where we want to be (as state champions).”
Denny Martin led the way with three hits for Messalonskee, which also got two hits each from Parker Reynolds and Jordan Lewis and 12 total as a team. The Eagles scored four runs in both the second and fourth innings.
With the game scoreless going into the bottom of the second inning, Messalonskee (11-3) got the first breakthrough. The Eagles followed an out to begin the inning with four straight hits from Reynolds, Garrett Giguere, Lewis and Sean Achorn and an Edward Little error to plate four runs.
Edward Little (6-8) got a run back in the top of the third, but Messalonskee used three hits and another Red Eddies error to make it 8-1 in the bottom half. The Eagles added two more runs in the fourth before Edward Little scored the game’s final run in the top of the fifth.
Giguere (2 2/3 innings pitched, one earned run) earned the win for Messalonskee, which also got three strikeouts and an earned run in 2 1/3 innings of work from Donovan Hermann. Cash Bizier pitched two scoreless innings for the Eagles to close out the game.
The win entrenched Messalonskee’s place among the top-three teams in Class A North along with Hampden and Skowhegan. The Eagles host Mt. Blue on Friday before closing out the regular season Tuesday against a River Hawks team that beat them 14-1 a month ago.
“We had this situation last year where we got crushed against Skowhegan in the second game of the year, and then we came out and we played our brand of baseball against them,” Palin said. “I expect it to be a much tighter, and if we do our jobs, I think we’ll come on top.”
Eli St. Laurent took the loss for Edward Little with eight earned runs in 3 1/3 innings of work. Six different players had a hit each for the Red Eddies.
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