FALMOUTH — Falmouth came from behind for the second consecutive game Thursday to remain one of only two undefeated baseball teams in the state.
The Yachtsmen manufactured two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to pull out a 5-4 win against Wells and improve their record to 15-0. It was their first game since last Friday, when they overcame a three-run deficit to beat Yarmouth, 13-10.
“I just want to keep winning,” said Falmouth Coach Kevin Winship, whose team is ranked first in Class A South with one game remaining in the regular season. “We’ll take the wins when we can get them. We’re just plugging along and playing who we can play, and doing the best we can.”
Like it has been for most of this spring, the weather was cold and clammy, but the Yachtsmen found a way to overcome the elements and the feisty Warriors (9-5-1).
“They’re undefeated for the second year in a row (in the Western Maine Conference) for a reason,” Wells Coach Todd Day said. “You’ve got to find a way to win and overcome adversity, and they did that today.
“We did that, too. We got down 3-0 and we could have tucked our tails in. That didn’t happen. We came back and we took the lead.”
Falmouth freshman Ike Kiely, in his varsity at-bat, lined a single to left to drive in the game’s first run in the second inning, following a walk and a hit batsman.
In the third, Colin Coyne was hit by a pitch and came around to score when Robbie Armitage doubled into the gap in right. After Armitage moved up on a flyout, Max Fortier singled through the right side of a drawn-in infield to make it 3-0.
Wells, ranked second in Class B South, batted around while scoring all its runs in the fourth inning.
The Warriors loaded the bases when Matt Tufts, Andy Skeats and Gary Andrews opened the inning with singles. John Miles drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to force in a run. It was the first earned run allowed this season by Cam Guarino, a left-hander who will go to the University of New Haven in the fall.
“It was wet and raw, and I don’t think (Guarino) could get a real good grip on the baseball,” Winship said.
“My curveball stayed up,” Guarino said.
One-out singles by Liam Bell and Michael Wrigley each produced a run, and the Warriors took a 4-3 lead on Cam Cousins’ groundout.
“We came in here with the right attitude and we battled,” Day said. “We hit the ball well. Our approach at the plate was excellent. We hit the ball up the middle, the other way, where it was pitched.”
Falmouth scored the game’s final two runs without the benefit of a hit.
Robbie Armitage was hit by a pitch leading off the fifth and his twin brother, Reece, reached on an infield error.
With Fortier at the plate, the Wells infielders pinched in at the corners looking for a bunt, but the Armitage brothers pulled off a double steal to put two runners in the scoring position.
“Robbie picked up that the third baseman was charging, and he kind of took third base on his own,” Winship said.
Fortier followed with a fly ball deep enough to center to enable the tying run to score while Reece Armitage advanced to third. Griffin Aube hit another sacrifice fly to right to drive in the winning run.
Guarino retired six of the seven batters to face him in the fifth and sixth innings to record his sixth win.
Robbie Armitage, a hard-throwing right-hander who will go to Marist in the fall along with his brother, struck out two of the three batters in the seventh to pick up his second save.
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