DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — Motivation comes easily to the Old Town High School baseball team this spring.
The veteran Coyotes, having graduated just two starters from a year ago, need only think back to June 18, 2014, when Caribou snatched the Eastern Maine Class B championship game from them with a dramatic 10th-inning walk-off victory.
“It definitely gives us the fire to want to be right back there this year,” said Eric Hoogterp, a senior pitcher and shortstop for coach Brad Goody’s club.
Old Town made an early season statement reflecting those aspirations Tuesday afternoon, improving its record to 4-0 with a 12-3 victory over Foxcroft Academy in a battle of clubs expected to contend for regional honors this spring.
Senior right-hander Adam Richardson scattered seven hits over six innings in his first outing of the season before Hoogterp came on to work a scoreless seventh.
Center fielder Braden Upshaw, another senior, paced Old Town’s offense with three singles and five RBIs as the Coyotes combined the majority of 11 walks, a hit batter and 10 base hits to build a double-digit cushion midway through the contest.
Hoogterp contributed a double, two singles, an RBI and three runs scored to the Old Town offense, while cleanup hitter Cole Daniel also scored three times and catcher Tyler Young singled twice with three RBIs.
“That was definitely our best hitting performance this year to date between our six preseason games and first [four] regular-season games,” said Goody. “We’ve showed it at times but were never able to string things together like we did today. Between the walks and timely hitting, it was good to come up here and get a win, which is pretty rare.”
Upshaw singled to left in each of his first three at-bats, driving home the game’s first run in the top of the second and adding two-run hits in both the third and fourth innings.
Upshaw’s third-inning hit, on the first pitch of the game delivered by Foxcroft reliever Tanner Strout, highlighted a six-run, 11-batter uprising that snapped a 1-1 tie.
“I was thinking he had just come in so he was going to try to throw me a strike,” said Upshaw. “I was looking for a fastball somewhere inside and got it.”
Upshaw produced a similar result an inning later, with his sharp two-out single to left making it 9-1.
Hoogterp had an RBI double and Young a two-run single to extend the Old Town advantage to 12-1 in the top of the fifth, but Foxcroft avoided implementation of the 10-run mercy rule by scoring twice in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Talon Strout and an RBI double by Nate Church.
Church came on to work 2⅔ innings of solid relief for the 3-1 Ponies, but they were unable to make further inroads into the Old Town lead.
Junior shortstop Abe Simpson led Foxcroft’s eight-hit attack with three singles.
“We need to come out and play our best in all phases of the game to beat a team like this,” said Foxcroft coach Mark Chevalier, whose roster includes nine seniors after the Ponies graduated just one starter from last year’s playoff team. “We didn’t do that today.”
