No rest for local baseball, softball squads

6 years ago

The busy Memorial Day weekend features a slew of baseball and softball games. On Friday in softball, Southern Aroostook plays at Washburn at 3:30 p.m., while Central Aroostook at Hodgdon and Fort Fairfield at Fort Kent have 4 p.m. starts.

The Katahdin at Ashland game has been postponed until Saturday at 10 a.m.

On the baseball diamond, GHCA plays a doubleheader at Ashland, with the first game beginning at 1:30 p.m. The teams will play a pair of five-inning contests. Also on Friday, Central Aroostook is at Hodgdon, Houlton is at Calais and Fort Fairfield is at Fort Kent, with all of those games getting underway at 4 p.m.

Eden Paradis of the Fort Kent Warriors slides safely into the second base as Presque Isle second baseman Connor DeMerchant can’t handle the throw and shortstop Jonah Hudson backs up the play. The Wildcats won Thursday’s game, 3-1.
(Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg)

The Presque Isle Wildcats travel to Brewer Saturday for the Penobscot Valley Conference Large School Championships in track and field, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Houlton’s track squad heads to Caribou Saturday for the PVC Small School championships starting at 11 a.m.

On Saturday in baseball and softball, Wisdom is at Washburn for a single game at noon, while Hermon travels north to take on Presque Isle in doubleheaders that also start at noon.

Several squads will also be in action on Monday for Memorial Day. Central Aroostook travels to Southern Aroostook at 11 a.m., Hodgdon is at Fort Fairfield at 4 p.m. and Orono is at Houlton at 3 p.m. Greater Houlton Christian Academy baseball will travel to Danforth for a doubleheader with East Grand at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Six local tennis players are competing in the MPA State Singles Tournament. The opening rounds take place Friday and Saturday in Portland.

Caribou’s Gabrielle Marquis is the girls’ fourth seed and teammate Ashland Matlock is seeded 11th. Hailey Holmquist of the Vikings enters as an unseeded player. For boys, Parker Deprey of Caribou enters as the No. 6 seed, while the Vikes’ Gabe Rand and Andre Daigle of the Presque Isle Wildcats also qualified and are unseeded.

Chance Bragan (10) is congratulated by teammate Andrew Hewitt after Bragan drove in a run in Presque Isle’s 3-1 victory over Fort Kent Thursday.
(Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg)

The semifinals and finals will be played Monday at Bates College in Lewiston.

Only a handful of games were played Thursday. Results from those games are as follows:

Baseball

Fort Fairfield 13, Central Aroostook 3 — Jared Harvey struck out nine Central Aroostook batters and Isaac Cyr slammed three doubles and a single as the No. 1-ranked team in Class D North, the Fort Fairfield Tigers, improved to 10-2 with the rout of the Panthers in a game played at Fort Fairfield.

Lane Grass hit a two-run double for the 6-5 Panthers.

Presque Isle 3, Fort Kent 1 — R.J. Gross was dominant on the mound for the Wildcats as the senior struck out 11 batters and surrendered just three hits in the complete-game performance, leading PI to the home victory.

Connor DeMerchant collected an RBI triple and singled and scored a run for the winners, who improved to 5-8.

Eden Paradis, who scattered 10 hits, took the loss for Fort Kent (11-3), but had two hits and scored his team’s lone run.

Softball

Fort Fairfield 12, Central Aroostook 5 — The Tigers overcame an early deficit and downed the Panthers in Fort Fairfield.

Sara Edgecomb and Makaila Beck contributed two hits each and Edgecomb was also the winning pitcher for the 4-8 Tigers. Breann Bradbury homered and Libby Grass and Emma Patterson added three hits each for 3-8 Central Aroostook.