BANGOR – From the stands at Mansfield Stadium, someone implored Tim Locke to go for the hat trick.
But the damage had already been done.
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the time he reached first on an error in the sixth inning, Locke, a junior third baseman on the Waterville baseball team, had hit two home runs.
He had a hand in nearly half of the Purple Panthers’ offense Saturday as Waterville defeated Cape Elizabeth 9-5 for the Class B state championship.
“I put the home runs behind me and I just wanted to get a line drive, because line drives get extra bases,” said Locke, who finished 2 for 4 with four RBI — and who also plays hockey at Waterville. Hence the hockey reference.
After Locke’s home runs in the fourth and fifth innings, the hits just kept coming. The Purple Panthers and the Capers combined for 18 hits — Cape had 10 — and four errors.
“I think both teams hit the ball pretty well,” said Cape starter Robert Macdonald, who took the loss.
“The numbers on the scoreboard do speak for themselves, but they hit the guys home in the clutch when they needed to. We did that, too, and I tip my hat to them because they did it four more times.
Cape Elizabeth (18-2) stranded three runners in the first two innings, but Cape’s defense and pitching allowed Waterville one hit over that same stretch.
In the top of the fourth, Sam St. Germain’s two-out single landed in short center field and Macdonald was waved home from second base to give Cape a 1-0 lead.
Cam Brown (3 for 4, three RBI), the next batter, drove in St. Germain, and Kyle Piscopo followed by driving in Brown to give the Capers a 3-0 lead.
But in the bottom of the fourth, Locke’s three-run homer made it 3-3, and with one out, Sam Nashed’s double drove in Zach Whery and Mark Beckim, giving the Purple Panthers (19-1) a 5-3 lead, their first of the game.
The Purple Panthers tagged Macdonald for four hits in the fourth before he was lifted in the fifth for Will Pierce after giving up Locke’s second home run.
“I got a little complacent,” Macdonald said. “I’d run the bases and I hadn’t caught my breath yet. I started to leave the ball up in the zone and I take my hat off to them because they jumped on that immediately.
“The first three innings I had everything working.”
Leading off the bottom of the fifth, Locke hit his second home run, kicking off a four-run inning for the Panthers.
Brown’s double in the top of the sixth cut Waterville’s lead to 9-5.
“We knew we had to get some more runs,” Locke said of his team’s early struggles. “Coach (Dick Whitten) was getting frustrated because we weren’t getting on that first pitch and driving it.
“Finally he talked to us and settled us all down, and finally we got on base and tied it up.
“This is the way you want it to be played. You’re losing, and you get down when you start losing, but you want to come back and get the hits.
“You make all the corrections that you need to make and from there, get the lead and keep your composure on defense.”
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com
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