RICHMOND — The records were deceiving, but Wiscasset’s win against top-seeded Richmond in the Western Maine Class D baseball semifinals Saturday was no fluke.
The fourth-seeded Wolverines took advantage of Richmond walks and errors and rode the three-hit pitching of sophomore Daren Wood to a 9-3 victory.
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Wiscasset (9-9) faces No. 2 Buckfield at St. Joseph’s College on Wednesday for the regional title while Richmond finished at 12-2.
The Bobcats never recovered from a shaky first inning in which they committed three errors and the Wolverines got a pair of timely hits from Tyler Bailey and Nate Howard.
“We’ve got one senior that starts,” Richmond coach Ryan Gardner said. “I think nerves were a big factor today.”
The Wolverines dropped from Class C to Class D this season but maintained their Class C schedule in the competitive Mountain Valley Conference. In the long run it made all the difference.
“I think it made a huge difference,” West said. “We face really hard-throwing pitchers who have sharp curveballs and changeups.”
Richmond sophomore Mike Stewart (6-1) struggled with his control in taking his first loss of the season, issuing seven walks while striking out seven. He left the game in the sixth, trailing 7-3 with the bases loaded. Freshman reliever Brendan Emmons walked in a run and surrendered an RBI single to Cassius Carr before getting out of the inning.
“The eight walks (hurt),” Gardiner said. “Four of them scored and two of the errors scored. There’s six nine (runs).”
The Bobcats could do little with Wood who spotted his fastball and kept them off balance with his curve. He struck out 11 and didn’t issue a walk although he hit three batters.
“He’s very effective,” first-year Wiscasset coach Mike Bowles said. “He pitched three innings Wednesday (against Valley) and we took him out to get him ready for this game.”
The Bobcats scored their three runs in the fifth. To that point, the only hit they had was Matt Holt’s opposite field single in the second inning and was promptly picked off first. With one out in the fifth, Bailey Johansen blooped a bunt into no-man’s land between third and short for a base hit. Colin Acord was hit by a pitch and with two outs, Brendan Emmons singled into left to score Johansen. Two more runs scored when Cameron Emmons’ fly ball to center field was dropped. Wood got No. 3 hitter Tyler Soucy on a fly ball to short to end the inning.
“They got those three runs in the inning but we got out of it,” Bowles said.”It not only gave Daren confidence but it gave us confidence.”
Wood got six of the final seven batters he faced to end the game.
“His curveball kept us off balance,” Gardner said. “We don’t see enough of that pitch. You can’t have an off day in a C/D conference. Every day you have to come ready to play or you get your butt kicked.”
Gary Hawkins — 621-5638
Twitter: @GaryHawkinsKJ
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