AUGUSTA — For a while now, it’s been more rule than exception that you won’t have a full roster in American Legion baseball. Combined, Waterville and Augusta were missing about a half-dozen starters for Saturday’s doubleheader.
But Waterville did have J.T. Whitten, Brian Bellows and Mark Beckim. The pitching, hitting and fielding of those three made the difference as the Beavers earned the sweep 7-6 and 12-1 at Morton Field.
The first win took some unexpected clutch plays by the Beavers (2-1) and clutch pitching by Beckim after Waterville led 6-1 entering the bottom of the seventh. Both Whitten and Bellows had driven in three runs apiece, all with two out. Whitten allowed seven hits over the first six innings, but also struck out eight.
So it didn’t seem to mean much when Zach Elwell led off with a walk and Spencer Buck fisted a single over third base just inside the left field line. One out later, Simon Yorks singled to load the bases and Tucker Whitman lined an RBI single to right to make the score 6-2.
That brought up Tayler Carrier, who recently completed his freshman year at Cony. Carrier had three hits off Whitten at that point and immediately made it four by knocking the first pitch over the left field fence for a game-tying grand slam.
“The kid just absolutely crushed that one,” Waterville coach Eli Fitzgerald said. “It was out of the strike zone a little bit, and the kid just put a charge into it. J.T. was throwing well the entire time.”
Augusta (1-3) nearly won the game after that. With two down, Reid Shostak reached on an error and stole second, and Thomas Foster singled to right field. Bellows made a nice throw from right to nail Shostak at the plate.
Whitten led off the Waterville ninth with a walk then advanced to second on a hit and run groundout. Curran Quinlan singled to left and the Beavers led 7-6.
Of course, it wasn’t over, especially when Yorks led off with a double and Whitman was safe on a throwing error. But with Yorks at third, Beckim struck out Augusta’s 3-4-5 batters to preserve a definitely hard-fought win.
“Certainly the way things ended, I think the guys were a little disappointed, and felt like they had one for the taking,” Augusta coach Don Plourde said. “But that’s the game of baseball.”
Elwell pitched six solid innings for Augusta, striking out eight and allowing only two earned runs.
The second game turned out to be the easy Waterville win that the Beavers thought they had in the opener. Each team had five hits, but Augusta pitchers combined to issue 11 walks and hit six batters. Waterville’s offensive highlight was still one of those hits, as Whitten hit a towering two-run homer in the sixth to put the Beavers up 8-0. Whitten said it was the third straight summer he had gone deep in each game of a Legion doubleheader.
“That’s actually probably the best home run I’ve ever had,” Whitten said. “I could just watch it. It felt amazing off the bat.”
Bellows pitched a complete game with one walk and eight strikeouts. He had his curve ball working and not only got 18 swings-and-misses in seven innings, but also four called third strikes.
“When it’s on, it’s got a good break to it,” Fitzgerald said. “Catching him in warm-ups, it does break quite a bit — enough to fool the batters.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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