OLD ORCHARD BEACH — There’s nothing like an offensive explosion to shake the rust off some early season swings.
The Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide took out some of their frustrations on the Seacoast Mavericks Friday night making 11 hits count on their way to a 10-6 victory in Futures Collegiate Baseball League action played at The Ball Park in Old Orchard Beach.
“We’ve all sat out a little while because our seasons ended a little early,” said Mike Pratt, who drove in three runs for the Raging Tide. “It takes a little time to get your swing back in order, but I think we’re finally at the point where we’re making good contact against every pitcher we face. It’s showing in our last couple of games where we’ve put some good at-bats together.”
The 10 runs against the Mavericks almost matched the Tide’s total output so far this season. Old Orchard was shutout twice and scored only 12 runs in its first five games.
The Tide (3-3) scored all 10 runs in its final five at-bats. It plated five in the fourth, added two more in the seventh and capped off its offensive evening with three in the eighth.
“It takes a little bit to get back in the groove,” said Tide head coach George Reidy.
“I think we’ve faced some very good pitching so far this season so it kind of amplifies the struggles. When things go bad anytime in the game of baseball it seems you can’t buy a hit. But we know we have some good players and it was just a matter of time before they would start to break out. We have too many good hitters to continue to struggle.”
The two runs in the seventh turned out to be the difference in the game. The Tide started the frame trailing 6-5 but quickly loaded the bases with no outs. Jason Vosler singled to score one run to tie the game and, with the bases still loaded, Pratt grounded out to push home another run and give Old Orchard Beach the 7-6 lead.
Tucker White’s triple highlighted Old Orchard’s three-run eighth.
The Raging Tide scored five runs in the fourth to erase an early 3-0 deficit. White, with one of his three hits in the game, started the rally with a one-out single and Vosler walked. Pratt drove in both players with a double to get the Tide on the board. Old Orchard then loaded the bases and Tito Lluberes hit a pop fly to left that dropped in between the Seacoast outfielders. The miscue allowed White to score to tie the game at 3-3. A ground out by Sam Balzano and a wild pitch brought home two more runs and gave the home side a 5-3 advantage.
“I think we had a little luck when that ball fell in,” said Reidy. “You get some luck like that and then the bats came alive at the end.”
Seacoast (3-5) got back to within one in the fifth, trailing 5-4, and surged ahead in the seventh. Aiden O’Leary started the seventh with a one-out single. He moved around to third on a successful hit-and-run by Anthony Peguero. Kyle Bobolts followed with a double to left to score O’Leary and, when the ball got away from the Tide in the infield, Peguero beat a throw home to give Seacoast a 6-5 lead.
The two teams complete their home-and-home series tonight with a 7 o’clock start at Bert George Field in Rochester, N.H.
— Contact Mark Jeanneret at 282-1535, Ext. 323.
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