Old Town baseball narrowly outduels rival Orono on the road

The Old Town varsity baseball team did just enough to edge out Orono on Wednesday afternoon, relying on its pitching to defeat its rival on the road, 2-1.

On the mound, crafty senior Owen Rand and fireballing freshman Tyler Priest allowed just four total Red Riots hits, with Rand doing the bulk of the work and Priest locking down the seven-out save.

At the plate, the Coyotes tallied just six hits of their own but managed to score once in the second and once in the fourth, with senior first baseman Brendan Mahaney (1-for-4) getting the pivotal RBI double with two men on and two outs.

“Just the whole team, [we’re] throwing strikes and making them hit the ball — making the plays on defense,” Rand said. “We need to preach that all season and keep playing our game.”

Behind Rand and Priest, the Coyotes stepped up to make two inning-ending double plays on Wednesday, keyed by senior second baseman Alex McCannell (1-for-2, two walks) and senior shortstop Preston Vose (1-for-4, one run).

In the fourth, McCannell snagged a line drive off the bat of senior Cadin Ewer-Cousins and promptly raced to second base, doubling off junior Logan Williams (2-for-3, two singles) who initially headed to third off contact.

In the sixth, Vose and McCannell teamed up with Mahaney to help Priest escape a jam, executing a flawless 6-4-3 double play with two Red Riots on base and one out.

“For most of us [in the field] it’s our third year playing together, so we have that chemistry,” McCannell said. “If the pitchers keep throwing strikes, we’ll make the plays.”

Orono’s pitchers also threw their fair share of strikes, with senior Adam Sherman getting the start and going four innings with one earned run, three hits and three strikeouts. Sophomore Andrew Barrett (one inning pitched, one hit) and junior Noah Schaff (two innings pitched, two hits) twirled three scoreless innings in relief, stranding five runners.

“We left a lot of guys on base, and couldn’t drive in a couple more runs to give us a breather,” Old Town head coach Justin Crisafulli said. “Brendan got that key hit which was the difference, and Tyler came in and shut them down. Owen’s throwing strikes, and has a great curveball. He’s holding us into leads.”

With Wednesday’s result, the Coyotes improved to 2-1, and the Red Riots fell to 2-3. Old Town has won both its games by two runs or fewer — having scored just five runs total — and Orono has lost all three of its games by one run.