CORINTH, Maine — Just before Central High School pitcher Kenzi Graham stepped to the plate in Tuesday’s Class C North preliminary round playoff game against Maine Central Institute, Central coach Shawna Neal played a hunch by calling on freshman Aili Spack to pinch-hit for her with the winning run on third base and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
It paid off.
Spack drove in the winning run with an infield hit to cap a two-run rally that gave eighth seed Central a wild 10-9 victory over No. 9 MCI at the Central High field in Corinth.
Central, of Corinth, now 9-8, will now travel to Bucksport to take on the top-seeded and defending C North champion Bucks in Thursday’s 4:30 p.m. quarterfinal.
Bucksport is 15-1 and has won 15 straight games.
MCI, of Pittsfield, which has just one senior on its roster, finished up at 9-8.
The Red Devils, with only two seniors on their roster, trailed 9-8 entering the seventh but Chloe Daigle opened the seventh with a line drive base hit off the first baseman’s glove.
A walk and an out later, Bayleigh Irish hit a sharp ground ball that knocked pitcher Kassie Snowman’s glove off for an infield single to load the bases.
Jordyn Curtis lofted a game-tying sacrifice fly to left and on the throw to the infield, the runners moved up to second and third and Spack came up to the plate.
“I was a little nervous but I was glad we won,” said Spack. “I had kind of been in a slump and when I swung, I got underneath the ball.”
The right-handed-hitting Spack hit a little pop-up with a ton of spin on it that landed to Snowman’s left and kicked toward the first base line so by the time it was fielded, Spack was almost crossing the bag.
“Aili has had a pretty solid bat all year so I figured she could get the job done,” explained Neal. “I figured I might as well give it a whirl.”
The game was a see-saw affair between two teams that had split regular season games.
Central took a 6-2 lead thanks to a five-run third-inning rally in which the Red Devils didn’t get a hit. Three walks, three errors, two wild pitches and a fielder’s choice on which an out wasn’t recorded produced the five runs.
MCI got one back in the fourth on Emily Lawrence’s bunt single and a couple of wild pitches and the Huskies took the lead with four runs in the fifth on a dropped fly ball for an error, a hit batsman, a wild pitch, Skyla Dean’s RBI double, Chichi Rivera’s run-scoring single, Lawrence’s run-scoring sacrifice bunt and Bailey Churchill’s base hit.
Central answered with two in the bottom of the fifth to take an 8-7 lead.
Maddie Cox and Kourtney Kenneson singled, there was a passed ball, Daigle scored Cox with a groundout and Elizabeth Lugdon delivered Kenneson with a sacrifice fly.
MCI tied it in the sixth on Bridgette Rancourt’s bunt single, a fielder’s choice and singles by Snowman and Dean (RBI).
The Huskies then took the lead in the seventh when Jyllian Riendeau walked and scored when Alanna Dunton’s two-out single skipped past the right fielder and rolled to the fence for an error.
“That has been our season,” said Neal. “We’ve had leads, we’ve (given up) leads. We’ve fought back.
“That has been the name of our game and I don’t like it. But they do a good job sticking with it,” said Neal. “They’re clutch. I’ll say that. When it really counts, they get it done.”
“We have a bad inning in a game and we usually don’t come back from it but we’ve been doing a lot better job coming back from innings that weren’t so good,” said sophomore second baseman Irish, who was also excited about Spack’s contribution.
“I am so proud of her. I’m glad she was confident and did what we needed her to do,” Irish said.
Kenneson drove in two runs with a double and a ground-out and she also had a single for the winners. Daigle had two run-scoring groundouts to go with her single.
Graham went the distance in the circle to put up the win. She allowed 13 hits, four of which were bunt singles, with seven strikeouts, three walks and two hit batters. Just four of the runs off her were earned.
Shortstop Dean, the Huskies’ only senior, capped her career with a three-hit game as she tripled, doubled and singled and drove in two runs. Rancourt, Snowman, Lawrence and Churchill had two singles apiece.
Snowman allowed seven hits over six innings and only five of the runs were earned. She struck out three and walked five.
“There have been good games between us all season,” said MCI coach Erica Rock. “We knew they were an equal match. It could have gone either way.
“I’m real proud of our girls for coming back after being four runs down. They battled, kept chipping away and kept their attitudes and morale up,” said Rock. “I couldn’t have asked for a better game from them.”
