Auburn, ME – CMCC Baseball won its second straight Yankee Small College Conference Tournament championship on Saturday, with a commanding 9-1 victory over #2 seed York County Community College. The #1 seeded Mustangs receive the conference's automatic bid to the USCAA Small College World Series in DuBois, PA.
Augustino Bonadie pitched a complete game for Central Maine to pick up the win, striking out seven and allowing just five hits over his seven innings. Brendan Mahaney and T.J. Kramarz each recorded a pair of RBIs, while Jake Calver, Cody Cleaveland, and Mahaney all scored twice.
"It was nice to have a game where we got production from all aspects," head coach Ryan Palmer said. "Tino was great on the mound, we played great defense in front of him, and we got timely hitting. Extremely proud of this group."
"It feels great," said captain and catcher Zac Gorman. "We spoke about what we wanted to accomplish as a team at the start of the year, and we came to the conclusion that we wanted to go back to the Small College World Series again. Winning this, feels like we've put the work in to get to this point, and it has paid off. As captains, all the boys have exceeded what we wanted out of them."
Both starting pitchers, Bonadie for CMCC and Brady Batson for YCCC, found their rhythm early. Bonadie struck out Cameron Sengenberger to end the top of the first. Batson, the conference Pitcher of the Year, then struck out Cody Cleaveland and T.J. Kramarz, both All-Conference honorees themselves, to start the bottom half of the inning. After a base hit by Jake Calver, the lefty pitcher from Waterboro, ME picked him off first base for the third out.
The damp conditions on Saturday did make getting a grip on the baseball difficult for both teams. Bonadie issued a four-pitch walk to start the second before his defense turned a double play. Batson also struggled with control in the bottom half of the inning.
That allowed Central Maine to score the first runs of the contest. Brendan Mahaney led off with a walk. Caleb Oickle and Gorman were retired on back-to-back fly balls to right field, but the offense found its groove with two outs. Garren Post hit a single up the middle, and Ty Bernier was hit by a pitch with a full count to load the bases. Dawson Babineau, representing the bottom of the order, hit a slow bouncer to short for an RBI on an infield single that scored Mahaney.
Cleaveland followed with a ground ball to second. Avery Conant fielded it but threw wide of first base, allowing Post and Bernier to score to make it 3-0 Mustangs. Kramarz reported to the plate next to do some more damage. The hometown product out of Edward Little High School continued his stellar first season with a line drive off the glove of Caden Fontaine in center field. That plated Babineau and Cleaveland for two more RBIs and a 5-0 lead.
York County pulled one back in the top of the third. Brody Emery reached safely. His sharply hit ground ball was field by shortstop Cleaveland on the backhand. The throw across the diamond looked close but was a moot point after it one-hopped off the heel of Post's glove. Gabe Leitch followed with a double to right field but slipped as he rounded second base and was tagged out before he could get back to the bag. With Emery at third, a wild pitch sent him sprinting for home to make it 5-1.
It did little to stop the Mustangs' momentum. Calver led off the bottom of the third with a walk before Mahaney brought him around to score with a curling RBI double down the right field line. Oickle got Mahaney over to third with a groundout.
The All-Conference selection from Old Town, ME was nearly erased from the base paths on the next batter. Gorman hit what appeared to be a sizzling line drive destined for the outfield, only for YSCC Player of the Year Jack Sullivan to make a leaping grab at shortstop. He alertly flipped to Leitch at third, but Mahaney dove back to the bag headfirst in the nick of time. That proved important, as Post drove him in with a ground ball to second that Conant bobbled, making it 7-1.
Batson showed signs of fatigue in the bottom of the fourth inning, making his third start in eight days. Cleaveland reached on a throwing error by the pitcher on a chopper back to the mound, which may have helped rattle the freshman. Batson issued walks to the next three straight batters, Kramarz, Calver, and Mahaney, which brought another run across the plate.
Central Maine was poised to potentially end the game early by run rule, only for things to fizzle out on an infield fly. Oickle popped the ball up towards third base, swirling around in the wind, with the umpire calling an infield fly out. The pop fly eventually fell off the glove of Leitch in fair territory. Kramarz, seeing the ball drop, broke for home only to be thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
The top of the fifth also ended with an out on the basepaths. Elijah Greenleaf hit a long fly ball to deep center field that Babineau hauled in. Leitch headed to third, looking to put the Hawks' second run of the day just 90 feet away, but the cut-off man threw to second base instead. The reason was made clear when the Mustangs appealed that Leitch had left early, confirmed by the umpire who called the All-Conference Honorable Mention infielder out.
Bonadie showed he had stamina to spare, even after closing out the game against the Hawks a day earlier on Friday. He had four of his seven strikeouts in the final three innings, including back-to-back punchouts in the sixth to end that inning.
Calver increased the lead to eight in the bottom of the sixth. The Hope Island, Australia native was walked for the third time in the game. He stole second and advanced to third as well when a throw from substitute catcher Jackson Mattox bounced into center field. A wild pitch from reliever Cameron Sengenberger allowed him to cross home plate with his second run of the game, making it 9-1.
The Mustangs closed out the game in the top of the seventh with their first one-two-three inning of the contest. A throw across the diamond from Kramarz at third to get Leitch set off jubilant celebrations. CMCC had to wait 15 years for their second conference crown last season, but the third YSCC Tournament title came just a year later.
In the postgame awards ceremony, Gorman was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the Tournament following his work behind the plate, tagging out several runners trying to score and managing the pitching staff superbly. Bonadie picked up Tournament MVP honors after closing out the semifinals for the save and earning the win in the championship game. York County's Jack Sullivan was received the Most Outstanding Offensive Player award.
Even though it was a chilly and wet afternoon, there was no sparing coach Palmer from a dunk with the water cooler. Captains Mahaney and Gorman took care of that after posing for a team photo with the school's latest championship plaque.
"Everyone always asks me why I don't seem excited after we win," said a wet coach Palmer after the game. "It's not that I'm not excited, but I think when you really get excited it's like you didn't expect it to happen. I'm not surprised at all that we won it again. I knew back in August that we had a good enough team to repeat, and we were the team to beat. The old saying goes, 'act like you've been here before'."
The Mustangs will now turn their attention to the Small College World Series, just a week away. The team will find out its seeding and first match-up during the USCAA national tournament selection show on Monday at noon. The team will look for more success after picking up its first win in a game at the national level last season.
"We saw the level of competition last season and when we went to Pennsylvania this spring," said Gorman. "So we know a bit more about what we're going into. We'll celebrate the victory today but then keep working. Hopefully we can be successful on the national stage."
Central Maine improves to 26-8 overall heading into the USCAA Small College World Series, which will be a double-elimination tournament. Games will be played at Showers Field, the home of Penn State-DuBois, and nearby Stern Field. The first games are scheduled for Monday, May 11th with the All-American banquet and home run derby being held the day before on Sunday, May 10th.
