DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The Old Town Coyotes erupted for six runs in the top of the ninth inning as dusk approached Tuesday to outlast Foxcroft Academy 7-1 in an early season battle of undefeated Class B North baseball teams.
But the victory was one of mixed blessings for coach Brad Goody’s club, which lost senior captain Dana Ouellette to a serious right ankle injury as he unsuccessfully tried to score the winning run an inning earlier.
Ouellette, a righthander who struck out 14 batters and allowed just two hits through seven innings in a pitchers’ duel with Foxcroft’s Nate Church, walked to lead off the top of the eighth and advanced to third base on back-to-back bunt singles by Jake Ketch and Drew Coulombe.
Ouellette tried to score one out later on a flyout to left by Austin Sheehan, but as he unsuccessfully tried to elude the tag of Foxcroft catcher Jason Thompson he caught his right spike in the dirt near home plate while attempting a late slide and suffered an apparent broken ankle.
Ouellette subsequently was taken by ambulance to nearby Mayo Regional Hospital.
“It’s extremely tough,” said Goody. “We’re a close-knit team and to lose the ace of our staff, our senior captain and kind of the knucklehead of our team because a lot of kids like him, it’s not going to be easy.”
The game resumed after a delay of more than a half-hour, with Coulombe replacing Ouellette on the mound and recording five more strikeouts in two innings of shutout relief.
Old Town (4-0) then sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the ninth against Foxcroft reliever Tanner Strout to break a 1-1 tie, with Ketch contributing a two-run double deep down the left-field line, Sheehan hitting a two-run single to right, Jake Dubay lining an RBI single to center and Ryan Hoogterp adding a sacrifice fly.
“I was awfully proud of them,” said Goody. “I had actually asked if they wanted to suspend the game and play the next time we meet them and they didn’t have any interest in that and the guys got behind that. They were fired up and ready to go and they had a good reason to play.
“Hopefully that will propel us for the rest of the season.”
Ouellette and Coulombe combined for 19 strikeouts and one walk on the mound while yielding just four hits.
“All of these kids played in the Senior League World Series and have been playing together for a long time now,” said Goody, “so I think we’ll pull through this and be all right.”
Foxcroft (3-1) was within one out of winning the game in the seventh behind Church, who drove in the game’s first run with a first-inning triple to deep center and then shut out Old Town on just three hits through six innings.
Church — coming off a season-opening no-hitter against Dexter — retired the first two Old Town batters in the top of the seventh before T.J. Crawford drew a four-pitch walk, the first of just two issued by the senior righthander during his eight-inning stint.
Crawford then stole second base and took off for third on a 1-1 pitch that Hoogterp one-hopped sharply off Church’s glove near the mound.
The ball popped into the air and then settled on the ground between the mound and second base, and Crawford never stopped running and scored the tying run on the infield hit.
