Lincoln Academy did not come with their A game in Tuesday’s 15-8 loss to Greely in the Western Maine Class B championship game at St. Joseph’s College in Standish. Eagle pitching struggled, walking five and hitting one and giving up 12 hits. Defensively Lincoln struggled as well, committing four errors.
For the second straight year, the Eagles have lost in the West B finals. Helped by the Eagles’ rough start, Greely jumped out to a 8-0 lead.
“We made a lot of errors and they made us pay for it. If we could erase their first two innings we would have won 8-7. It was a sloppy game for both sides,” coach Greg Rice said.
On a positive note, Rice said, “We’ll try to get over the hump next year. Hopefully we’ll get better next year with experience. We have a lot of young guys and we’ll build on that.”
Starter Ben McLain threw to two batters, walking both, before being pulled by Rice. Gavin Joannides came on in relief for the loss in five innings. Alex Cosgrove pitched to one batter and Eric Morgner closed out the game.
Lincoln scored four runs in the 2nd inning to cut the lead in half. Brandon Reilly walked, Joannides singled and Chris Chickering walked to set up an RBI walk to Morgner and two run single to Dalton Leeman. Morgner scored on a passed ball.
They added two runs in the 5th when Lamb hit a lead-off single, McLain singled and both scored on a Reilly single. The Eagles plated two runs in the 7th when Everett Martin and Reilly drew walks to set up a Joannides RBI single and Chickering RBI fielder’s choice.
Hitting for the Eagles were Leeman, Lamb, McLain and Joannides with two each and Reilly one. Hitting for Greely were Matt Labbe with three singles (5RBI), Kevin Hart a two run homerun in the 2nd and two singles, Ryan Howard a solo homerun in the 6th and a single, Pat Copp a double and single, Nate Martin a triple, Sam Stauber and Pete Stauber two singles each.
