Staff Writer
The Houlton Shiretowners lost to host Calais, 9-6 in last Thursday in the Class C quarterfinal game.
Photograph by Tara Austin
SAFE – Houlton’s Ryan Hill slides head first into third base to beat the tag in the quarterfinal matchup at Calais Saturday.
With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, and Houlton trailing 2-1, the Blue Devils’ Roman Hall blasted a 3-2 changeup over the left field fence for a grand slam homer to give his team a 6-1 lead.
The Shiretowners came back with three runs in the top of the fifth to close the scoring gap and again knotted the game at 6-all in the top of the sixth inning.
“We scored five runs and still had the bases loaded with no outs,” said Houlton coach Shawn Graham. “We were unable to push another run across the plate.”
Calais’ Josh Gillespie was able to get out of the jam by inducing a double play ball then getting a fly ball to get out of the inning, said Graham.
Offensively, the Blue Devils responded by knocking in three runs, all with two outs, in the bottom of the sixth and then holding Houlton scoreless in the seventh.
“Calais scored eight of their nine runs with two outs,” Graham added.
Ryan Hill singled twice for the Shiretowners and drove in a run, while Porter Gervais belted a run-scoring double in the fifth to draw Houlton closer to Calais. Hunter Caron added a single and drove in two runs.
“I was pleased with the way our kids handled the playoff atmosphere,” Graham said. “For the most part, we had a number of kids with minimal varsity experience and for them to knock off a very good Stearns team in the prelim round and then give the number-three seed all they could handle was very satisfying.”
The Shires had a couple of bad breaks and the Blue Devils had timely two-out hits. But, as Graham said, “That’s baseball.”
In their preliminary contest, the Shiretowners defeated No. 6 Stearns, 8-3.
Houlton’s Gervais had a solid game, hitting two singles, a double and sacrifice fly to score four runs. Caron singled twice and knocked in three runs and Levi Prosser had a run-scoring single.
The Shiretowners built a 3-0 lead and extended it to 5-3 after the third. Houlton would go on to tack on two runs in the top of the fourth and another in the sixth en route to the win.
