Montreal, QC – CMCC baseball's fall trip to Montreal ended Saturday night with a doubleheader split against the McGill University Redbirds. The Mustangs took game one 5-2 before losing 8-9 on a walk-off single, to return to Maine with a 3-1 record from their trip to Canada.
Game One, 5-2 W
Kyle Delano and Gabriel Braun had themselves a pitcher's duel through five innings in game one. Central Maine took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when freshman Jake Calver drove home the game's first run when grounding into a double play with the bases load.
The run scored by Brady Vincent proved to be the only one until the late innings with both pitchers getting some good defense and allowing just four hits each. The Redbirds best chance to tie things up came in the bottom of the fourth with one out and runners on second and third. But a ground out and a pop out got Delano out of the jam.
CMCC came through with some run support in the top of the sixth. Vincent drove in Brandon Gour with a double to center field before coming home himself on a Hayden Durrell RBI single up the middle. That marked the end of Braun's day with Justin Zabudsky coming on in relief.
Wilton Bompey responded in kind for McGill in the bottom half of the inning, whacking a two-RBI double to left field to bring in Alessandro Perreault and Daniel Zevnik. That made it 3-2 heading into the seventh.
The Mustangs added a couple of insurance runs in their last at bats, bringing eight total batters to the plate. Ryan Stone knocked in Gage Hubbard with a ground ball through the gap into right field. Vincent then plated Gour with a single to left to complete a two-RBI, two-run day.
Lee Robertson closed things out on the mound, striking out two of the three batters he faced, giving CMCC a 3-0 start to their Canadian road trip.
Game Two, 8-9 L
McGill avenged its defeat in a roller coaster ride of a game two. The Redbirds built a 7-2 lead after three innings before the Mustangs rallied to tie things at 8-8 in the top of the seventh. Leadoff hitter Brad Marelich came through with a line drive into right field that scored Samuel Walsh for the walk-off win.
The hosts tagged starting pitcher Logan Carpenter with two runs in the first inning, three in the second, and two more in the third, getting 23 batters to the plate in that span. Central Maine was able to pull one run back in both the top of the second and third innings. First, Brandon Gour was able to beat the throw on a two-out infield single that scored Hunter Merrithew. Then Levi Tibbetts scored from third base on a Brendan Mahaney sac-fly.
Central Maine slowly but surely chipped away at the lead to find a route back into the game. Hayden Durrell brought home Gour and Ryan Stone on a single into right field in the fourth that made it 7-4.
Steven White laid down a sacrifice bunt to get Gage Hubbard and Merrithew into scoring position in the top of the fifth. That set the stage for a Lee Robertson line drive to cut the deficit to 7-5.
McGill added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, meaning the Mustangs would need at least three runs in their last at bats to have any hope of extending the game. That's exactly what CMCC came up with. First, White's RBI ground out brought in Mahaney. Then, down to their last out, Fischer Cormier delivered an infield single to plate Merrithew. Finally, Shane Jewett's line drive into left tied the game at 8-8.
There would be no more heroics though. After Levi Tibbetts struck out to end the rally, the Redbirds ended things on the Marelich RBI single.
CMCC now sits at 9-3 in the fall ball portion of its season. The Mustangs still have two more games to go on their nine-game stint away from home. They start October with trips to Bridgton Academy on Tuesday before facing Thomas College next Saturday. Central Maine next plays in Auburn on October 12th when they host Quincy College for a doubleheader.
