The Biddeford baseball team sent their fans home in a celebratory mood Monday night.

After falling behind to Scarborough, the Tigers came storming back and won the game on a thrilling walk-off home run from Travis Vigneault as the Tigers captured a 6-5 victory.

The Storm got off to a strong early start behind some good pitching and a three-run fourth inning to get out to a 4-0 lead at the game’s midpoint.

But the Tigers were not to be outdone as they generated some offense of their own in the fourth with three runs. Biddeford’s Nick Gagne drove in two runs with a single and Tyler Audie added one.

But the Tigers still trailed until their final at-bat in the seventh when Vigneault brought the Biddeford faithful to their feet with a walk-off three-run homerun that clinched the 6-5 win.

The Red Storm’s Joe Cronin delivered an exceptional performance on the mound up until the fourth inning, allowing no runs and leaving several runners stranded through the fourth. That exceptional performance included pitching himself out of a bases loaded jam with just one out in the bottom of the second. “He’s been doing a great job for us and he certainly pitched well enough for us to win today,” said Storm head coach Jim Cronin.

Scarborough relief pitcher Andrew Myers took the mound in the sixth to deliver a perfect inning. However, things didn’t go quite as well when he returned to the mound in the seventh.

With two men on and two outs, Vigneault came to the plate. Myers ran the count to 1-2, and was just one strike away from the save when Vigneault connected, driving the ball out of the corner of right field.

After the game, elated Biddeford head coach Casey Roy said that he was glad to see the Tigers finally get a big hit when it counted. “Earlier in the season, he (Vigneault) hit one at Windham at the same spot and got us back into the game,” Roy said. “Then they ended up hitting a walk-off home run on us two weeks ago. So, it’s just good to be on the other end of that. Our biggest problem this season is getting that big hit and getting guys on. Early in the game, we left the bases loaded a few times, left a man on second a few times. That’s the one thing we’ve been missing is that big hit at a big time and today Travis stepped up and did it.”

The Tigers relied on some solid pitching of their own to stay within striking distance of the win, a fact not lost on Roy, “All year we have had four pitchers that have stepped in for us and have kept us in every game except one,” he said. “The games we lost, (we were missing) that one hit we were waiting on, it was good to see them bust out today and get that hit when it counted.”

Biddeford’s Travis Vigneault meets the team at home after his walk-off home run lifted the Tigers to a late-game victory over Scarborough Monday.
Staff photo by Chris Shipley