BASEBALL

Cheverus 2

Windham 1

WINDHAM – In the end, Cheverus’ Ryan Casale was the hero of a marathon, 10-inning contest on Tuesday at Windham High School.

But it was one of those games where you wished the sun would set as quick as possible so that neither team would have to walk off the diamond defeated.

Casale ripped a 2-1 fastball from Windham’s Joe Francouer to center, scoring Nick Melville, who had reached on a throwing error, to take the 2-1 win. The loss drops the Eagles to 1-1 on the season while the Stags improve to 2-0.

For most of the game, Windham’s Cody Dube went head to head with Cheverus’ Harry Ridge in an epic battle as each pitcher tried their best to will their team to victory.

Dube went eight strong innings, giving up only one unearned run on six hits while striking out six batters. Ridge went nine innings, striking out seven and allowing only four hits.

Dube, who appeared to get stronger as the game went on, threw 105 pitches, and did not allow a sometimes-shaky defense to rattle him. Dube pitched around errors in the seventh and eight innings, twice stranding the go-ahead run on second base.

“(Dube) is a battler, he’s a soldier,” said Eagles’ coach Mike Fullerton. “He’s mentally tough enough and physically conditioned enough to handle something like that. He takes care of himself and has trained really hard for this season and we felt comfortable stretching him out a little bit today in hopes of getting that win.”

Unfortunately for the Eagles, they were unable to provide Dube with enough run support to take home the victory.

The Eagles had their chances but allowed the winning run to remain stranded at second base in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.

The Eagle’s Matt McLean nearly ended the game twice as he launched a double to the fence in the seventh and ninth innings before getting stranded at second base. Both of McLean’s doubles came on a day when the wind was not blowing directly in from center field, and they may have soared over the fence for a homer on another afternoon.

After Dube was forced to move to short in the ninth do to a heavy pitch count, Francouer, who had a game-tying RBI double in the second, was summoned in relief.

Francouer pitch a scoreless ninth but made a throwing error in the 10th inning allowing Nick Melville of Cheverus to reach first and advance to second.

After inducing a pop up, Francouer saw Casale rip a single into center to give the Stags a 2-1 lead.

“I thought we defended well at times, but overall you have to keep guys off base,” said Fullerton. “They scored both their runs off errors. So guys got on base because of errors and they scored. That’s kind of what you’ve got to stay away from.”

Cheverus’ Mitchell Powers closed the game for the Stags in the 10th despite giving up three hard-hit shots to the outfield. Again, on a calmer day, the three fly outs Powers induced may have flown over the gloves of Cheverus outfielders.

Despite the loss, there were plenty of positives to come from the Eagles’ play, most notably the performance of Dube.

In two games this season, Dube has thrown 15 innings and has yet to give up an earned run while striking out 14 opposing batters.

Following the game, Dube remained optimistic and demonstrated the composure that Fullerton mentioned earlier.

“It’s always tough when errors happen but you have to keep a level head and go one pitch at a time from there and make sure no more damage is done,” said Dube. “We had a lot of chances to score but it didn’t happen. We didn’t play our best but we still kept up with Cheverus, so it’s not that bad.”

Cody Dube threw eight strong innings in the Eagles’ 2-1, extra-inning loss to Cheverus on Tuesday afternoon. Dube has yet to give up an earned run this season through 15 innings of work.
Matt McLean drills a fastball to the wall in the seventh-inning for a double. McLean would add another long double in the ninth but was stranded at second.