CARIBOU, Maine — T.W. Willard clinched the 2017 Caribou-Presque Isle Men’s Softball League tournament title by topping the Inglorious Batters on Tuesday, Aug. 8, at the Teague Park diamond.
The matchup featured the second and third seeds as the No. 1 County Boys, which had just one loss during the regular season, were knocked out by both Inglorious Batters and T.W. Willard in playoff action the previous week.
The championship game began as a pitcher’s duel, which is rare in men’s softball. After two innings, T.W. Willard held a 2-0 advantage.
In the third inning, T.W. Willard scored five times thanks to a two-run homer off the bat of Brandon Caverhill and a three-run blast by Cody Herbert, making the score 7-1.
Inglorious Batters battled back by scoring four times in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit to two runs, but Matt Manter’s three-run triple in the bottom of the inning highlighted a five-run rally by T.W. Willard, growing the lead to 12-5.
Jake Paradis, Jordan McLaughlin, Ken Cameron and Budd Nicholson all came across to score in the next inning for Inglorious Batters to draw to within three and each team posted three runs the rest of the way to account for the 15-12 final.
Manter, Herbert and Ted Walker all had three hits to pace T.W. Willard, while Paradis and McLaughlin also banged out three hits for Inglorious Batters, with one of Paradis’ hits being a home run.
