BREWER, Maine — Mike Grimble admitted to being over-anxious at the plate during Thursday’s Eastern Maine Class A baseball quarterfinal against Cony.
When he came up in the sixth inning, the senior co-captain was finally able to sit back and wait a split-second longer. Grimble drilled a two-run home run to snap a tie and lift the Witches to a 3-1 victory at warm, windy Heddericg Field.
“The first two at-bats I was so far ahead of it,” Grimble said.
“I got up there and I was just thinking, keep my weight back and look for a fastball in a [good] spot,” he added of his first high school homer.
Coach Dana Corey’s No. 3 Witches (13-4) will host No. 7 Mt. Blue of Farmington in a semifinal contest Saturday. The No. 6 Rams wound up 8-9.
Grimble’s heroics made a winner of poised senior right-hander Evan Riva (7-1), who gave up only five hits and worked around four errors, a hit batsman and a walk.
“They understand that things are going to happen to them, to their teammates, that they can’t control,” Corey said of Brewer’s resilience. “They’ve just got to take a breath and get back at it.”
Brewer managed five hits off senior righty Kolbe Merfeld (3-3), who struck out one and walked one, but two of the hits came in the pivotal sixth.
Junior Matt Pushard lined an opposite-field single to right-center for his second hit of the contest. That brought up Grimble, who turned on a fastball and drilled it over the fence.
“What a hit in a key situation, he’s the one that propelled us to the win,” said Riva, who on May 27 had blanked Cony 2-0 on six hits.
“He was told to swing the bat this time with a purpose,” Corey said of Grimble.
“All of a sudden, you’ve got a chance to breathe a little bit,” he added of the homer.
Cony had difficulty generating momentum. The Witches took a 1-0 lead when Merfeld reached on fielding error, advanced on a balk and scored when Tom Foster ripped a double down the left-field line.
One out later, Reid Shostak was hit by a pitch and the runners moved up when an infield fly rule popup was not caught. Spencer Buck grounded to short and was called out on a bang-bang play at first base.
Cony head coach Don Plourde was ejected for arguing the call.
Brewer tied it in the fourth when Pushard lashed a single to center and moved up when the ball was misplayed. He advanced on Gimble’s groundout and scored on Alex Brooks’ sharp single past third.
In the fifth, Cony’s Foster singled with one out and took second on a wild pitch. Taylor Carrier was then ejected by the home plate umpire after suggesting that a pitch ruled a foul ball had hit him on the arm.
Pinch hitter Evan Bowers was called out on strikes, but Shostak laced an opposite-field single to right. Shostak stole second, but was left stranded when Riva induced an inning-ending come-backer to the mound.
“We had some moments where we could have persevered, but we just didn’t follow through,” Merfeld said.
“It was kind of getting to us,” he said of the contested calls and subsequent ejections.
Cony threatened in the sixth when Ben Leet reached on a one-out error and stole second. But he was caught off the bag on Justin Rodrigue’s bouncer to the mound.
Riva walked Tyler Tardiff, but got an inning-ending grounder to third.