The playoffs started early for No. 8 Hermon baseball, tasked with defeating No. 9 Belfast in the preliminary rounds on Tuesday afternoon.
Up against the Hawks’ (8-9) senior ace Danny Fowler, the underdog Lions (8-9) took a 3-0 lead through three innings, subduing Hermon’s home crowd. But the hosts gradually settled in, scoring seven unanswered runs to confidently punch their ticket to the Class B North quarterfinals versus Ellsworth.
Fowler retired nine straight batters beginning in the fourth inning, while the Hawks scored seven runs on seven hits, two walks and three errors in that same time frame.
“Belfast came out ready to play, and fortunately for us Danny got a little aggravated. He wasn’t happy with the way he started and kicked it into another gear,” Hermon head coach Matt Kinney said. “Once he did that, the momentum shifted and we got some key hits.”
Fowler finished with 10 strikeouts, five hits and no walks through six innings of work, on 75 pitches (59 strikes). Fellow senior Gavin Scripture came on in the seventh to close out the win.
On offense, the Hawks got two RBIs apiece from Scripture (1-for-3, two runs) and junior catcher Brayden Ladd (2-for-3), plus a two-hit performance from junior first baseman Maddox Kinney (2-for-4, two runs).
Maddox’s younger brother Mason knocked in the tying run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly to right, and Ladd broke the game open in the fifth with a two-out, two-RBI single to left.
“I was telling our team to just trust [ourselves] on the plate, swing for contact and don’t overthink it,” Ladd said. “Everybody’s gotta do their part, and nobody’s gotta do their own thing.”
Belfast’s two-run first inning was keyed by a leadoff single for junior catcher Ethan Abbott (2-for-3, walk, two runs), followed by an error at third and an RBI single for junior Gary Gale (2-for-3, two RBI).
On the mound, senior Eli Velliuex allowed just two base runners through three innings, but began to lose his command in the fourth and was yanked by the end of the frame. From there, the Lions were unable to stop Hermon’s rally, despite a second pitching change one out into the fifth.
“We played hard, but we had some mistakes here and there and kind of ran out of gas. We have a tendency to get up and relax a little bit,” Belfast head coach Chris LaValle said. “It’s tough to send the seniors off like this, but I’m proud of them.”
Hermon’s season will continue on Thursday afternoon, when they travel to Ellsworth to take on the No. 1 Eagles (15-1). The Eagles previously beat the Hawks 2-1 on April 30, and 4-2 on May 22.
Coach Kinney won’t be able to use Fowler on the mound again with such a quick turnaround, but still likes his team’s chances.
“Danny doing his job today [makes] everyone available for us versus Ellsworth, and against a team like that, you need everybody,” Kinney said. “At the beginning of the year, being down 3-0 would have felt like 100-0, but we’ve progressed. Being in all those tight games this year will benefit us going forward.”
