OLD TOWN, Maine — Hermon’s Nick Guerrette walked to the pitcher’s mound in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday seeking to protect a one-run lead in a battle of the two top-ranked baseball teams in Class B North.
His immediate goal? Retire the first batter.
Jake Ketch, not only the leadoff batter in the inning but the leadoff hitter in the Old Town batting order, knew it was just as important to get on base.
So they battled and battled, until finally, 12 pitches later, Guerrette used one last fastball to get the strikeout en route to a 1-2-3 inning that preserved Hermon’s 2-1 victory over the Coyotes.
“At the start of the inning when we were all at the back of the mound after the catcher threw down, [first baseman] Tyler [Beaton] told me the first out was the most important out, especially in as close a game as this was,” Guerrette said.
“I was starting to get a little aggravated because [Ketch] was fouling all those balls off, but at the end, I got him,” he said.
Guerrette struck out four batters and walked two while scattering six hits and yielding one unearned run during his complete-game performance. The right-hander threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of 30 batters and finished his outing delivering 101 pitches, 76 for strikes.
“Really I just wanted to get out there and throw strikes and compete with them,” he said. “I know they’re a really good team, so it’s always good to get ahead in the count.”
Guerrette needed all the accuracy he could muster to outlast Old Town right-hander Kaleb Gifford and send 6-1 Old Town to its first regular-season defeat since 2014.
Gifford struck out 11 and walked one while scattering six hits over six innings before getting seventh-inning relief from Drew Coulombe.
Guerrette made Gifford pay for one of his few mistakes, pulling an 0-1 fastball down the left-field line for a leadoff double in the top of the sixth.
Guerrette advanced to third base as Old Town’s Nick Swift made a diving catch off Christian Greener’s foul fly ball down the right-field line, then scored to snap a 1-1 tie when Zach Nash blooped a single to shallow right field.
“That pitch was right down the middle,” said Guerrette of the game’s only extra-base hit. “I was a little out in front of it, but luckily it was fair. I was really hyped about that, and it was good to get the team going and bring a little momentum to our dugout.”
Hermon (6-1) had come up big defensively just a half-inning earlier.
Gifford lined a one-out single to left-center and stole second before Austin Sheehan singled up the middle. Gifford tried to score, but Hermon center fielder Matt Leach fired a one-hop throw to the plate and Greener tagged out the sliding runner.
“When Matt Leach throws that guy out and Christian Greener holds onto the ball when he makes the tag, that was huge,” said Hermon coach Matt Kinney. “That’s probably the play that could have changed the whole dynamic of the game.
“I told Matt I thought I hurt my ankle when he made that play because I got pretty excited about it,” added the former major leaguer pitcher.
Hermon used consecutive one-out singles by Beaton, Guerrette and Greener to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, only to have Old Town counter in the bottom of the inning with one-out singles by Coulombe and Gifford, an infield error and a bases-loaded walk to Cole Daniel to tie the contest.
