READFIELD — The little things eventually added up for Camden Hills in Tuesday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference matchup with Maranacook. But it took a big inning late for them to add up to a win.
Camden Hills scored six times in the top of the seventh to rally from a 4-2 deficit and defeat Maranacook 8-4.
The comeback came down to three keys for the Windjammers — 1) senior starting pitcher Daulton Wickenden gutted out a complete game despite having less than his best stuff; 2) Wickenden’s defense made the routine plays behind him to help him limit the damage; and 3) Ben Rollins beat out a ground ball for an infield hit that sparked the six-run seventh.
“We’re not such a hitting team. We’ve got to grind everything out,” Camden Hills coach Jeff Hart said. “We put some good at bats together. I told the guys that inning started with a ground ball to short that we beat out. That’s just playing the game the right way. Those are big things for us.”
Rollins, the Windjammer’s leadoff hitter, was the one who hustled to get the inning started, although Maranacook coach Eric Brown didn’t think he beat the throw and argued with the base umpire briefly.
“I thought he was out by half a step,” Brown said. “Camden Hills is a good team. You give them a little momentum and they’ll keep flowing. And they did.”
The Windjammers (7-1) ultimately sent 12 men to the plate in the inning. Dalton Oakes and Mike Wolff followed with singles. Wolff’s hit drove in Rollins to make it 4-3, and he moved up to second when the throw back into the infield missed the cutoff man.
Brown replaced starting pitcher Dan Garand with Cam Brochu. Kyle Cram greeted him with a base hit to left-center that scored the tying and go-ahead runs. Wickenden’s sacrifice fly and Oakes’ two-run single added to the lead.
Wickenden, who allowed six hits and four walks (two intentional), retired the final seven hitters to get the complete game victory after allowing at least one baserunner in each of the first five innings.
“Today I couldn’t throw a curveball for a strike and I was getting a little frustrated out there,” Wickenden said. “So I sort of had to lean on the fastball at times, which is tough because they were sitting on it.”
“He’s definitely a pitcher. He’s not a flamethrower. He’s going to keep you off-balance. He struggled with his curveball up a couple of times,” Hart said. “He gets hurt when he gets the ball up in the zone. But he’s such a competitor. He’s going to stay with it when the going gets really tough.”
The going got tough early for Wickenden. Mark Buzzell (three hits) led off the Black Bears’ first with a single. With one out, Wickenden hung a 1-1 curve ball to Brochu, who crushed it to deep left for a quick 2-0 lead for Maranacook (4-4).
“I knew he was a good hitter. In batting practice, he kept cranking them out. I threw one right down the middle to him and he punished it on me,” Wickenden said.
Camden Hills tied the game in the second with the help of two Maranacook errors that led to RBI singles by Wickenden and Matt Crockett.
Like many teams in the KVAC this year, the Windjammers didn’t give Brochu a second chance to make them pay for a mistake when they could help it. With first base open his next two times up, Wickenden intentionally walked the senior slugger.
The first time, which put runners at first and second with one out, Wickenden wiggled out of the jam with a ground out and strikeout. The second time, the walk loaded the bases with no one out in the fifth. It seemed Wickenden would escape again when he struck out the next two batters, but Nick Bowie ripped a two-out single up the middle to put the Black Bears up 4-2.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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