After fast start, Legion team in midst of 4-game losing streak
Through their first 11 games, the Presque Isle Patriots have experienced both the highs and the lows during their American Legion Zone 1 season.
Most recently, it has been the “lows” as the team was swept in a doubleheader for the second time in a row Saturday, this time at home by scores of 11-6 and 9-5 to the Brewer Falcons.
As a results, the Patriots, who after seven games were 6-1 and among the top two teams in the league, have now slipped to the middle of the pack of the 11-team league. They took on Lincoln last night before returning home to take on Orono Thursday at 7 p.m.
“Their heads are down a bit right now and they’re playing a little tense,” said assistant coach Jim Thibodeau. “I think they’ll start working things out.”
Presque Isle fell behind early in game one of its twinbill against the Falcons. Brewer plated two runs as Rick Adams led off with a walk, advanced to third on a double off the bat of Eddie Robbins and scored on a throwing error. Robbins later came across the plate on another defensive miscue by the Patriots.
Brewer built the lead to 5-1 before the Patriots showed off their capable offense in the bottom of the third inning. Sending nine batters to the plate, Presque Isle had a pair of doubles – one each by Hunter Caron and Andrew York – and singles off the bats of Logan York and Matt McGlinn to key a five-run outburst that led to a 6-5 advantage.
However, the Falcons took the lead back with two runs in the fourth and added four insurance runs in the sixth, three courtesy of a home run off the bat of Chris McGuire. Meanwhile, the Patriot offense was held scoreless over the final four frames despite putting a number of runners on base.
“The hitting carried us early on,” said Andrew York, who suffered the pitching loss in the opener. “We scored 20-plus runs a couple of times and were averaging over 12 runs per game. Lately, we’ve just been struggling with our hitting, and now the opponents are starting to hit us a little harder.”
York went six innings, allowing nine hits and six walks. Coming off a stellar outing a week and a half earlier at Orono, the former Central Aroostook Panthers standout was disappointed with his outing.
“I was going long in the count a lot and losing them to walks,” he said. “They’d end up scoring and that really ends up hurting you.”
Despite loading the bases, Craig Moody pitched a scoreless seventh for the Patriots. Greg Higgins earned the win on the mound for Brewer.
In the second game of the afternoon, Brewer again jumped out early by tallying three first-inning runs off Patriots’ starter Michael Cleary.
PI tallied a run in its half of the inning, courtesy of walks to Logan York and Pat Thibodeau, followed by Tom Desjardins reaching on an error to score York. The Patriots cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the second on McGlinn’s two-run double and then trailed just 6-5 after Andrew York and Thibodeau had RBI hits in the bottom of the fourth.
The long ball propelled Brewer again in the fifth inning as Rick Adams blasted a three-run homer over the left field fence to make the lead insurmountable for the Presque Isle squad.
Matt Enman relieved Cleary in the top of the sixth and pitched a pair of scoreless frames, but the Patriot offense stalled once again over the final three innings.
“This happened to us last year, too,” said Pat Thibodeau. “We came out strong, and then struggled a bit. We just need to start encouraging each other again like we were doing earlier in the season.”
Last year’s team went 11-11 in the regular season, then went on to place third in the American Legion Zone 1 playoff tournament.
“We just need to regroup and refocus,” said Andrew York.
Through the first 11 games of the season, Cleary leads the team in batting average at .533 and also has 13 RBIs and a team-high eight doubles.
Hunter Caron is at .444 with a team-best 14 RBIs and four extra-base hits, including a pair of home runs.
Harry Austin checks in at .429 with two homers and 11 RBIs. Thibodeau has scored a team-high 15 runs thanks to his .406 average and drawing 10 walks, also tops on the Patriots.
Logan York has compiled a .345 batting average with four steals. He has yet to strike out in 29 at bats.
