The Sebago Lakers American Legion baseball outfit – comprised of Bonny Eagle, Windham and Sacopee Valley players – wrung three games from last weekend’s double-elimination Regional Tournament. The team picked up a 7-6 win over Libby-Mitchell, but a pair of losses – 10-4 and 8-4 – to No. 2 Coastal Landscaping cost them their slot in the end.

No. 3 Sebago vs. No. 2 Coastal

The Lakers’ first outing of the tourney came on Friday afternoon the 22nd, at Cheverus, Coastal’s home turf. The visitors jumped ahead with two quick in the top of the first: Devin Butler reached base on a dropped third strike and scored on a Brady Grass double, and Grass scored on a Tanner Laberge sac fly to center. 

But Coastal had other plans for the day, and exploded for four in the bottom of the second. Matt LaPoint, Ian Westphal, Griffin Watson and James Sinclair all rounded to seize the lead; from there, the team never looked back.

“We’ve seen them a number of times this season,” said Lakers head coach Max Salevsky. “We knew they were going to be strong. Both teams came to play, and they just brought it a little bit stronger than we did today.”

Troy Bogdahn earned another for the Lakers in the top of the fourth after reaching base on a double, but Coastal promptly responded with four more, once each by Logan McCarthy, Sinclair, Pat Sullivan and Chris Vallee.

Laberge, very much a standout pitcher, started on the mound for Sebago, but – as Salevskey stressed – nobody is perfect all the time, and Laberge retired after three. Roderick Maynard – also exceptional – replaced him, but even Maynard was off. In the sixth, then, Noah Scribner checked in, hurling admirably till the end.

“They built up a lead,” said Salevsky of the opposition. “We had the lead, it was a 2-0 game. Coastal just hit, they hit … Tanner wasn’t on today; I think we had four hit batsmen between him and Roderick.” 

Plenty of innings may have remained after that, but Sebago could never quite get their bats going again. Watson and Alex Libby tallied two more for Coastal for the 10-4 final.

The loss dropped Sebago to 10-9.

No. 3 Sebago Lakers vs. No. 5 Libby-Mitchell

Sebago matched up with Libby-Mitchell (Scarborough, Gorham, Westbrook) the following morning, July 23rd, at Wainwright Sports Complex in South Portland, and big swinging by Maynard and Grass helped propel the team to victory.

Salevskey especially praised Grass and Maynard’s performances at the plate. “Brady had a real good game and so did Roderick. Give those two guys a lot of love.”

Sebago struck first in the matchup, posting three runs in the bottom of the opening inning: Butler grounded, reaching first on an error at short, then rounded all the way to home when Grass followed him to the plate and belted a triple into wide right field.

Brady Anderson took a turn behind Grass, and brought him home again with a sac shot to second. Finally, Laberge delivered a double, then advanced to third on a Maynard single and home on a Troy Bogdahn single.

Libby-Mitchell had no immediate answer for the Lakers’ attack, and Sebago hashed two more in the fifth to begin to pull away. Maynard pelted a single into right and Bogdahn brought him home with a double, also into right; Zach Hicks and DJ Shea then singled and Bogdahn scored for 5-0.

But Libby-Mitchell fought back in the top of the sixth: Morgan Pratt singled, Cam Smith reached on an error in right field, and Cam Seymour singled; all three would soon reach home to slice their team’s deficit by 60 percent.

Salevskey summed up Libby-Mitchell’s pushback in the downhill innings in minimalist terms, saying simply: “They started what they needed to hit.” 

Sebago added two more before their bats fell silent: Grass crossed in the bottom of the sixth and Anderson in the bottom of the eighth. It would be just enough offense to keep the Lakers ahead of Libby-Mitchell, who managed to squeeze three  more from the remainder of the game. Tim Carion scored in the top of the eighth, and Pratt and Smith both scored in the top of the ninth. But Hicks, on the mound by now for the Lakers, managed to choke off the action with a couple of Ks, wrapping up the W.

It was Hicks’s first inning pitching; Bogdahn started for the Lakers, and threw through eight. Hicks looked a bit nervous upon entering, but soon settled down.

“He did well,” Salevskey said of Hicks. “He started out, he was overthrowing a bit – which is normal; it’s a high-pressure situation. And we made a couple faux-pas behind him. But he absolutely came around; I went out and talked to him a little bit, told him all we needed was strikes and away he went.”

Butler finished 1-5 in the game with a single and a walk; Grass 2-5 with a triple and a double; Anderson 3-5 with a trio of singles; Laberge 1-5 with a single and a walk; Maynard 3-5 with three singles and a walk; Bogdahn 3-5 with two singles, a double and a walk; Hicks 1-5 with a single; and Shea 1-5 with a single.

Sebago moved to 11-9 on the win, and closed Libby-Mitchell’s summer at 6-14.

No. 3 Sebago vs. No. 2 Coastal

The Lakers took another stab at the Landscapers not long after topping Libby-Mitchell. And again Sebago dashed to an early lead, but again they quickly fell behind and eventually succumbed. 

“What didn’t happen?” said a chuckling Salevsky of the rematch. “Roderick threw, I think, about 140 pitches today. We just kind of rode him. He didn’t lose it.” 

Grass, in the top of the first, singled to kick the action off. He scored when Anderson followed him up with a triple to wide right. Anderson himself would never make it home, getting caught out 5-2 in a fielder’s choice on Tanner Laberge’s at-bat, but Laberge would round on Maynard and Bogdahn singles. 2-0 after one half.

Watson and Lapoint tallied in the bottom of the first, however, tying things up, and Vallee, Watson and Cam Dube tallied in the bottom of the second to snatch the advantage.

“Roderick threw great,” said Salevsky. “He just, like a lot of pitchers do, they leave a ball up in the zone when they shouldn’t leave it there. That’s a seminal moment in the game. He had 0-2 and 1-2 counts, and he just left the ball up a little bit.”

Laberge singled down the leftfield line in the top of the fifth and scored on a Bogdahn sac fly to right, and Brandon Fletcher reached base on a fielder’s choice in the top of the eighth and scored on an Ethan Olson single, but the team had simply fallen too far behind. 8-4 the final in another frustrating faceoff with their Coastal rivals. 

“We hit the ball well today,” said Salevskey. “It just went to people. We hit good shots into the outfield; 10 feet this way and it’s a double, 10 feet that way and the fielder catches it – which he did, a lot of the time. Congratulations to them for doing that; they had their defense set up perfectly.”

“We hit all kinds of balls up the middle,” said Salevsky. “Second base was like a vacuum cleaner over there.”

The loss ended the Lakers’ season at 11-10. Alongside No. 1 Yankee Ford, Coastal moved on to the State Tournament, currently underway in Augusta. 

Sebago first baseman Brady Grass waits on an incoming throw, hoping to tag a Coastal runner out.

Zach Hicks takes a cut at the ball for the Lakers.

Laker ace Roderick Maynard unwinds into a pitch vs. Coastal Landscaping on Saturday afternoon.

Sebago infielder Tanner Laberge lays a tag on a Coastal baserunner.