Warriors, Cougars come up short in playoffs

By Gloria Austin  
Staff Writer
Warriors close out season
    The Southern Aroostook Warriors closed out their season (14-2) last Saturday in Mars Hill, as the Panthers took a 13-11 victory in the Class D semifinals.
    No. 2 Central Aroostook (15-3 overall) faces No. 5 Deer Isle-Stonington (11-7) at 3 p.m. this afternoon at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor for the Eastern Class D title.
Houlton Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
SAFE – Katahdin’s Cody Cunningham slides safely across home plate in a cloud of dust, as teammate Jesse McNally reacts, during last Thursday’s quarterfinal game.
    On Saturday, the Panthers jumped to a quick 5-0 lead after one inning of play, but SACS rallied with a six-run second inning.
    “They [SACS] had some costly errors in the first inning which allowed us to get some runs on the board,” CAHS coach Brent York said. “Mitch Folsom was the key for us on the mound. He pretty much shut them down from the third inning on. He walked a few, but he spread them out pretty well.”
    The Warriors’ second-inning rally started with decent contact on the ball, as they had five hits, including two doubles and two walks. After another run in the third, Cody Robinson’s three-run blast after Pat Goodall and Dakota Sleeper walked in the sixth kept SACS close.
    Dan Brewer had a solo home run — his second of the postseason — and added two doubles and a single to spark the Panthers offensively. Mitch Folsom and Brendan York each had two singles.
    Robinson led SACS with a three-run home run, while Goodall and Jesse Small each had an RBI-double.
Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
CLOSE PLAY – Southern Aroostook second baseman Travis Smith puts the tag on a Wisdom runner in last Thursday’s Class D quarterfinal game.
    On the mound, Logan McLaughlin (four hits, four walks, four strikeouts in two-and-two-thirds innings) and Folsom (two hits, four walks, eight strikeouts in four-and-one-third innings) shared pitching duties for CAHS.
    “Mitch did a real good job closing out the game for us,” coach York said.
    Sleeper pitched the loss for SACS allowing 12 hits and four walks, with eight strikeouts.
    “I really think considering where we started, we did the very best we could,” said SACS coach Murray Putnam. “We had pretty stable pitching performances and even though we didn’t generate a lot of offense early in the season, all aspects of the game evened out.”
    In their quarterfinal game against visiting Wisdom, the Warriors needed eight innings and a gutsy play to advance in the tournament.
    In the eighth inning, Robinson walked and Putnam gave him the steal sign. The ball was thrown errantly into centerfield. As Robinson was sprinting to third, Putnam saw the centerfielder release the ball, and his runner hadn’t quite reached the bag. Gambling a bit as he knew the inning was late and didn’t know how long his team could go, Putnam opted to wave Robinson on.
Katahdin’s Mark McGraw throws
    “It wasn’t a bad throw from their centerfielder,” Putnam said. “But, with one out, we needed to do whatever we could to make something happen. We wanted to rapidly attempt to move him around.”
    With Robinson heading home, a diving head-first slide to the plate, evading the catcher’s swipe tag gave the Warriors a 4-3 win.
    “We need to give an immense amount of credit to Picard,” Putnam said of Wisdom’s pitcher. “He threw very well.”
    Picard struck out the side in the first after facing seven hitters and then had 10 strikeouts over the next six innings.
    “They have only one senior,” Putnam added. “They could be formidable.”
    Travis Casey’s two-run homer helped the Warriors to a 3-0 first-inning lead. He also singled in the game, while Robinson chipped in with a run-scoring single, as well.
SACS’ Dakota Sleeper fields the ball
    The Pioneers, who outhit SACS 8-6, battled back with single runs in the second and third and the tying run in the sixth setting up a climatic finish.
Cougars’ hopes dashed
    Last Thursday, Katahdin’s hopes of going deep into postseason was snuffed out with a 7-4 loss to Deer  Isle-Stonington in their quarterfinal match up.
    “Errors and I think, being young, the pressure of a tournament game got to them,” said Katahdin coach Marty McCarthy. “They didn’t play like they had been playing.”
    The Cougars prided themselves on a solid defensive effort through the season, but in the quarterfinals, they committed five costly errors.
    “It was our worst game defensively we’ve had all year,” McCarthy said. “We had been playing good defense. But, we lost to a good team.”
SACS’ Pat Goodall fires to home plate
    The Cougars and Mariners have met before the Eastern Maine round five times, with Deer Isle-Stonington going up by one, as they have defeated Katahdin three times.
    “It’s a pretty good rivalry,” said McCarthy. “We had a couple of key losses back in the season that we shouldn’t have lost. I didn’t want to get Deer Isle in the first round.
    The Mariners are defending state champs and had only graduated one player from their winning squad.
    “We knew they were going to be tough,” McCarthy said.
    The Mariner took a 5-0 lead through three and a half innings before Katahdin climbed back to within a run in the bottom of the fourth on back-to-back singles by Mark McGraw, Kolby Gallagher and Brady McNally. Cody Cunningham blasted a double to bring in two runs and then Billy Livezey’s grounder to second scored a run. Jesse McNally hit a sacrifice fly to score Katahdin’s final run.
    The Mariners had a 7-5 hitting advantage in the game.
    Katahdin finishes the year at 10-5, and returns everyone from this season’s team.
    “We have no seniors,” McCarthy said. “We’re looking forward to next year. We should be ready to play.”
Katahdin’s Kolby Gallagher reacts to the comeback, as do the fans