DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The Hermon High School baseball team used a fast start as the catalyst for a big finish to its regular season Tuesday afternoon.
The Hawks scored six runs in the top of the first inning and then settled in behind the two-hit pitching of senior Nick Guerrette to defeat Foxcroft Academy 12-0 in a battle of upper-echelon Class B North teams that ended after five innings.
Both clubs will enter postseason play with 12-4 records, though Hermon has a borderline chance for a top-four finish in the division and a bye into the quarterfinals when the final Heal points are released while Foxcroft will host a prelim next week.
“We’ve kind of had our lows, but I think we really came together as a team for this one,” said Hermon junior shortstop Zach Nash, whose team had lost three of its last five games since a 9-2 homefield win over Foxcroft on May 10.
“It was a good team win, and we definitely need to focus on doing it for the team from here on out, so hopefully we can make a good playoff run,” he said.
Nash paced Hermon’s nine-hit offense with three singles and four RBIs, including a two-run single in the top of the first off Foxcroft starter Noah Allen as the Hawks’ first four hitters reached base and 10 batters stepped to the plate altogether during an uprising that featured three hits, two Foxcroft errors and two wild pitches.
“We stopped popping the ball up,” said Hermon coach Matt Kinney. “We hit it hard on the ground and put it on a line and made them make plays. When you do that for five innings or as long as the game goes, it really makes a difference.”
The early support enabled the veteran Guerrette to focus on merely keeping his pitches around the strike zone.
“Getting the lead definitely gives you a lot more confidence and a lot more ability to leave some pitches where they could hit it to either get ahead in the count or let the defense make the plays,” said Guerrette, who also contributed two singles, three runs scored and an RBI at the plate.
The right-hander struck out four batters and walked zero while spacing 64 pitches over five innings. He faced just one three-ball count and allowed just one Foxcroft runner to reach second base.
“Nick didn’t mess around,” said Kinney, a former major league pitcher. “He started ahead in the count with just about everybody, he threw a lot of first-pitch strikes and made them put it in play.
“When you’ve got a lead, the worst thing you can do is put free guys on base, so he made pitches to make sure their offense didn’t get going and that kept our offense going because he did a great job of preventing rallies after we scored runs,” he said.
Nash singled home a run in the second to make it 7-0 and provided the big blow of a three-run fourth inning with an RBI double to deep left-center.
The Hawks scored two more runs in the fifth, one on Foxcroft’s third error of the contest and the second plated by Alex Applebee’s sacrifice fly.
Garrett Trask added two singles for Hermon, and Tyler Beaton scored three runs and Christian Greener delivered two RBIs.
“We all hit the ball pretty well, it was really a team effort,” said Nash. “It was nice to see everybody hit the ball hard and put good wood on the ball, and it kind of carried over because we didn’t stop after the first inning, we piled it on and that’s what we need to continue to do.”
