FARMINGDALE — Sam Moulton spent the majority of his at-bats Monday afternoon getting hit by pitches.
He picked a pretty good time to return the favor.
Moulton’s single to right field with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning plated Tyler Dubois from second as the Hall-Dale High School baseball team scored a walk-off, come-from-behind 10-9 win over Winthrop.
“It felt so nice. I’ve been in a bit of a rut for hitting so this felt awesome,” Moulton, who was hit by a pitch in three of his five at-bats, said. “I saw the second baseman wasn’t even close to the second base area so I just slapped it to the other side.”
The Ramblers (4-1) spent the better part of the contest in front, and led 6-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth thanks to four Hall-Dale (3-2) errors and strong pitching from starter Matt Sekerak. The tall right-hander struck out Cole Lockhart to start the inning, but then struggled with his command to let the Bulldogs back into the game.
“He never really lost his pop and he never really lost his curve ball, he just all of a sudden couldn’t find the plate and lost a little bit of confidence,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “Seven runs later it was a big inning for them.”
Sekerak hit Moulton and Josh Berberich to start the inning and followed by issuing full-count walks to Josh Cowing and Bobby Cumler. A single from Quinn Stebbins brought home one run, and two more scored on back-to-back Rambler errors to tie the game at 6-6.
Tyler Dubois followed with — after some debate from the umpires — a ground-rule double after the ball rolled under the temporary fence in left to score two more. Sekerak then gave way to Ben Allen, who was immediately tagged for an RBI double by Lockhart to make it 9-6. Moulton was then plunked for the third time in the contest to reload the bases, however, Allen got out of the jam when Berberich lined out to third for a double play.
“We really needed that big inning to jump start us, to get us hitting (and) get the ball rolling on defense,” Moulton said.
Winthrop wasted little time to extend the contest, though. Dakota Carter led off with a double, while Ben Caprara followed with a single. Following a strikeout from pinch-hitter Bennett Brooks, Antonio Meucci belted a three-run home run to left to tie the game at 9-9.
“That’s his first hit,” Fortin said. “He’s only got seven or eight at-bats but that was a key hit. I was actually about to pinch-hit for him and decided not to.”
Two batters later Allen very nearly replicated Meucci’s feat, but his line drive to left hit about halfway up the fence and he settled for a double. That would be as close as he would get to scoring as Stebbins struck out Jacob Hickey on five pitches to end the threat.
Hall-Dale managed to get runners to second and third with two outs in the bottom half of the inning, but could not score the winning run as Ben Allen struck out Brian Allen to end the inning.
Stebbins was once again in trouble in the top half of the eighth, as Sekerak led off with a single, while Mario Meucci and Carter each drew walks to load the bases with no outs. The Ramblers could not break the tie, though, as Caprara popped out to first, Sekerak was thrown out at the plate on a grounder to third from Cabot Lancaster, and Antonio Meucci struck out looking to end the threat.
“We had a couple plays that we didn’t make that we probably should have made,” Fortin said. “We had a couple opportunities that we didn’t cash in on, especially with that bases loaded in the eighth there. That was a key opportunity.”
Perfect small-ball execution in the bottom of the eighth allowed Hall-Dale to pick up the win. Dubois led off by reaching on an error and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Lockhart. With the runner on second and the right-handed hitting Moulton at the plate, Winthrop second baseman Adam Hachey was forced to cheat over toward the bag to hold the runner.
Moulton took advantage immediately, slapping the first offering he saw from Ben Allen the opposite way and allowing Dubois to score without a play at the plate.
“It was a great character builder being able to come back against such a great team,” Hall-Dale coach Bob Sinclair said. “It’s a good confidence builder.”
Stebbins, who picked up the win after tossing five innings of relief, went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, while Dubois also had a pair of hits.
Ben Allen went 2-for-4 with two runs scored for Winthrop, Sekerak, Hachey and Caprara each had two hits and a run scored and Mario Meucci drew three walks, scored twice and had an RBI.
Evan Crawley — 621-5640
ecrawley@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @Evan_Crawley
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