East All-Stars 8

West All-Stars 6

A four run second inning powered the Eastern Maine all-stars to an 8-6 win Friday night over the Western Maine all-stars at St. Joseph’s College.

“It’s one of those games where you want to beat the east,” said Cape Elizabeth’s Pat Murphy. “We wanted to win this year. It’s too bad we lost.”

The festivities began with the awarding of the Dr. John Winkin Mr. Baseball Award to Old Town’s Jarrett Lukas. Lukas then led off for the East and was hit by the first pitch of the game. Lukas later scored the game’s first run to give the east a 1-0 lead.

The eastern stars then took a commanding lead in the second inning with four runs. Bangor’s Tom Crews led off with a walk. Joel Neill knocked him in with a single and Lukas knocked the two of them in with a triple. Lukas later scored when Brendan Weed singled.

The Western all-stars got two of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning. Josh Jillson scored on a single by Kirk Metayer. Metayer later scored on an error. The Eastern all-stars went on to score one run in the fourth and two in the sixth. The stars from the west scored once in the fifth and twice in the seventh on a two-run homer by Poland’s Joe Douglass.

The West would threaten again in the eighth but only scratched across a single run before Lukas came on in relief to shut the door.

Despite the loss, the all-stars from the West were happy they got a chance to play in this game.

“This is just a privilege,” said Windham’s Josh Sundquist. “This is something I have looked forward to doing for some time. It’s just a great honor more than anything.”

Sundquist was 0-2 in the game but had an outstanding year for the Eagles. In 15 games he hit .442 with 16 runs scored and nine doubles. Sundquist knocked in nine runs and walked 10 times as his team finished with an 8-7 record.

Murphy was 1-2 with a single in the all-star game. He led the Capers to a 7-9 season before they fell to Mountain Valley in the quarterfinals of the western Maine tourney.

“It’s nice to play in this game,” Murphy said. “I was hoping I would get a chance to be here. I played in the underclassmen game last year. I was hoping to get a chance to play here.”

Scarborough’s Kevin Chamberlain, who also represented his school against the New Hampshire seniors last week, went 0-2 with a walk. This season he finished with a 3-4 record on the mound but that doesn’t tell the story of how well he pitched. His ERA was just 1.69. He allowed only 10 earned runs in 41.1 innings. He struck out 35 and gave up an average of just one hit per inning. At the plate Chamberlain hit .238 with one home run and eight RBIs.

Mike Tanguay was the lone representative from Westbrook High School and he did them proud. He spent half of the game behind the plate, where he has always excelled. He went 0-2 but reached base on an error and was hit by a pitch. This season, Tanguay hit .391 in 15 games for the Blue Blazes. He drove in 15 runs, had one home run, and walked six times to help his team to an 8-7 record and a tournament win over Windham.

Gorham High had two players selected for the Western all-stars. Justin Grandmaison started the game at third base. Grandmaison went 0-2 and reached on an error in his first at bat. For the Rams this year, Grandmaison hit .347 in 15 games. He drove in seven runs while scoring 17. The Rams went 12-3 and were knocked out of the tourney in the semifinals.

Andrew Dean was the league MVP and was also selected for this game. Dean went 0-2 with a walk and he also reached on an error. In 15 regular season games for Gorham, Dean hit .432 with one home run and eight RBIs. He had five doubles and one triple and also scored 13 runs.

“It was a lot of fun,” Dean said of the all-star game. “I’ve never met most of these guys. They are all really good baseball players so it was a lot of fun. It was a little different than a regular game because it was an exhibition. We all had fun out there. We lost and I’m a little disappointed in that, but it was fun.”