SACO — If it wasn’t for bad luck, the Massabesic baseball team would have no luck at all.
The Mustangs’ tough-luck season continued on Saturday morning as they dropped their eighth one-run game — this time a 5-4 loss to host Thornton Academy in eight innings.
“This is our third game in a row against three top teams with Gorham, TA and Portland and we lost by one run each (game) and two out of three of them were in extra innings,” said Massabesic coach Cory Woodsome, whose team held a 1-0 lead through three innings on Saturday.
Thornton Academy scored one run in both the fourth and fifth innings and added two more in the bottom of the sixth to take a 4-1 lead.
Massabesic answered with three runs in the top of the seventh to send the game to extra innings.
Thornton coach Jason Lariviere tried to calm his team down after the Mustangs rallied in the seventh inning.
“I actually tried not talking about (giving up the lead) because it just seems like we’ve been uptight and trying to do too much. I honestly just wanted them to relax and try to scratch across a run,” said Lariviere.
That strategy worked well as TA senior Brogan Searle-Belanger would send the Mustangs home with another heartbreaking loss when he ripped a single to right field and brought home the game-winning run in the eighth.
Cameron Seymour led the Trojans with one hit, two RBIs and four walks. Luke Chessie went 2-for-5 with one RBI, while Cameron Cross also had two hits and Luke Ham had an RBI single.
Lariviere is hoping his team can use the extra-inning win to kick start a deep playoff run as the Trojans (9-6) get ready for the Class A South postseason.
“I mean, for us, it’s hit or miss and we need to get on a streak,” said Lariviere. “Hitting has been probably our weakest portion of the game … just not good situational hitting, popping a lot of stuff up where we make it easy on the other team. We have hitters that can hit, it’s just they’ve got to have confidence, be aggressive early in the count and if they do that we’re going to be tough to beat.”
The TA coach had plenty of praise for a Massabesic squad that he called a “playoff team.”
“They turned three or four double plays. They hit the ball hard, they pitch well. They’re a really good team,” said Lariviere. “They are definitely not a two-win team. They could easily have seven, eight wins and be in the playoffs.”
Braden Daigneault led Massabesic with two hits, including a double, and one RBI. Nick Roberge added one hit and two RBIs, and Jake Gregoire, Seth Wakefield and Nick Hooper all had one hit.
Woodsome wasn’t surprised to see his team fight back against a tough TA squad on Saturday.
“These kids have battled the second half of this season. I’m extremely proud of them,” said Woodsome.
The Mustangs (2-13) will look to close out their season on a high note when they host Cheverus on Tuesday.
“We said at the start of the season that we are going to play one game at a time and every game is a playoff game,” said Woodsome. “I want that approach to them. I want their approach to be a playoff feel to every game and we’ll just let everything else work itself out.”
NOTES: Thornton Academy will close out the regular season with a trip to Hadlock Field on Tuesday to take on Deering … Brady Lambert went six innings on the hill for TA, which turned to Ryan Penney in the seventh and eighth on Saturday … Roberge, Ben Carroll and Alex Schepis handled the pitching duties for Massabesic.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.