Westbrook 10

Portland 2

For 16 years Mike Rutherford coached baseball at Portland High School. On Saturday, he made his return to Hadlock Field with his new team, the Westbrook Blue Blazes. The Blazes made their coach’s return a good one with a 10-2 win on the strength of a six-run second inning.

“A big win for me personally,” Rutherford said. “Obviously coming here after being at Portland for 16 years and coming back to Hadlock Field after a year off, that was a big win. It was kind of mixed emotions. I coached a lot of those kids a couple years ago and I’m close to a lot of them. I think the kids took it upon themselves to say ‘this is a big Heal Point game and its coach’s old school’ and we got it done.”

With the game scoreless in the second inning, the Blazes went to work. Taylor Clouarte started a rally when he was hit by a pitch. Two batters later Tyler Kelly singled and there were two on with one out. Zach Gardiner drew a one-out walk to load the bases. Lance Ludka then singled to plate the game’s first run.

After Matt Foye popped out to first it looked like the Bulldogs might escape with minimal damage. But Scott Heath knocked in two runs on a ball hit to first. Christian Hamilton followed that up with a bases clearing, two run triple and Westbrook’s lead was 5-0. Shawn McAlpine then singled in the infield to drive in Hamilton for a 6-0 lead.

“Scotty Heath has been the man all year,” Rutherford said. “He’s 15 and he hits like he is 19. When you hit number three as a 15-year-old in the Telegram League, it’s amazing. He’s been hitting it on the screws all year. Taylor Clouarte is hitting over .500. Matt Foye came up big and Hamilton is always going to hit. That was a big hit he had with men on base. They are all hitting. We went through a rut where we lost three in a row because we just couldn’t hit. We would get men on base but couldn’t get them in; today we did.”

Portland got one of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning. Connor McNeill was hit by a pitch. The next batter, Joe Violette, then singled, the Bulldogs were mounting a charge with two one and only one out. PJ Brogan hit a pop up into shallow left field. But Foye, with his back to the plate, made the catch over his head for the second out. Two batters later, Adam Gould walked to score the run, but it was all Portland would get in the inning.

“That was big,” Rutherford said of Foye’s catch. “That’s a game where it was 6-1 or whatever it was and they were making a bit of a comeback. If he misses that, maybe its 6-3 or 6-4 in that inning. That’s a great defensive play-a Major League play over his head. And that took the wind out of their sails in that one inning.”

The Blazes added another run in the fourth when McAlpine scored on a single by Clouarte. They tacked on another three runs in the seventh. Zach Johnson was hit by a pitch to ignite the rally. Tyler Kelly doubled to score Johnson. Two batters later, Ludka drove in Kelly. Westbrook’s final run came when Heath knocked in Ludka.

The Bulldogs managed to scratch one more run across in the bottom of the seventh but were off balance at the plate most of the day thanks to Hamilton. Hamilton allowed just four hits while striking out nine to earn his fourth win in five starts.

“Hamilton with a four-hitter and three were knuckle pucks,” Rutherford said. “He’s 4-1 he should be 5-0 the way he pitched against Deering. He is definitely one of the horses in the league and he’s proving it.”

The Blazes improved to 7-4 with the win.