Auburn, ME – CMCC Baseball honored its five graduating members by picking up a 6-3 win over archrival SMCC on Wednesday night. Brendan Mahaney, Zac Gorman, Jake Calver, Cody Cleaveland, and Owen Scott were presented with portraits before the game and took photos with friends and family. However, it was another graduating player, Garren Post – who was honored last year before deciding to return for his senior season, who made the biggest impact by going 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
"It's a great group of guys," said head coach Ryan Palmer. "Couldn't ask for better leaders. They're all captains, they've done everything that we've asked of them, and Garren too. They've been great. The younger guys have kind of looked up to them, and it's really helped to get where we are right now."
Stellar defensive plays were the order of the day in the early innings. Starter Augustino Bonadie snagged a sharply hit comebacker off the bat of Samuel Potié to end the first. Seawolves' short stop Tyler Herkalo caught a Post line drive at the top of his leap to prevent a run from scoring.
Post made a highlight reel play of his own to end the top of the second, taking a throw from Dawson Babineau after a flyout and diving glove first to the bag to get Tristan Laplante out on an inning-ending double play. SMCC starting pitcher Michael Pierce picked off Cleaveland at first after the outfielder led off the bottom of the second with a base hit.
The offense would eventually make an appearance. SMCC scored first in the top of the third. Thomas Marcotte smacked a line drive to left-center field that scored Mitchell Violette and Herkalo for a 2-0 lead.
The Mustangs responded in the bottom of the fourth. With Calver on second and Mahaney on first, Post demolished a ball from relief pitcher Aidan Dolan to center field that one-hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double. That cut the deficit to 2-1 with Calver crossing home. Mahaney scored to tie the game on an RBI groundout by Cleaveland, and Post dove headfirst to the plate on a wild pitch to make it 3-2 CMCC.
The senior from Westbrook High School continued to have a massive impact on the game. In the bottom of the fifth, he cleared the bases with a triple on another high, fly ball that bounced off the fence. He hydroplaned into third with another headfirst slide on the damp turf while Ty Bernier and Mahaney scored for a 5-2 lead. That brought the first baseman's RBI total to 15 on the season.
"It was good to finally get the ball in play to help the team out," said Post after the game. "Definitely helps against SMCC, always trying to beat them. It feels good to cap things off with a win, especially with the seniors heading out too."
Southern Maine got into more trouble in the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, a towering pop up from Babineau eluded Herkalo, dropping into shallow left field. The speedy freshman from Canada alertly sprinted the whole time and reached second with a double. Bernier and T.J. Kramarz both walked to load the bases, and Calver followed suit to plate another run for a 6-2 advantage. Jacob Watkinson, SMCC's fourth pitcher of the ballgame, was able to strike out Mahaney to end the threat.
The visitors pulled one back in the top of the seventh when Bryce Wilcox scored on a Marcotte sacrifice fly, but that was as close as they would come. Scott struck out three batters in three innings of relief to collect his second save of the season. A 4-6-3 double play brought things to an end in the top of the ninth.
Central Maine finishes off the regular season with two games on the road this week. The 22-7 overall and #1 seed in the conference Mustangs complete a three-in-three with visits to UMaine-Augusta on Thursday before travelling to NHTI on Friday.
