Portland comes around

By Stan Hudy

CLIFTON PARK – The New England Regional champions, Portland, Maine finally joined the party at the 13-15-year-old Babe Ruth World Series in Clifton Park Monday afternoon.

After starting the World Series with two consecutive losses, Portland joined the winning ranks with a 6-3 victory over Pacific Northwest regional champion, Kelso at Clifton Common. Portland, righted itself after opening the day with a 5-2 loss to South Colonie.

Down 1-0, Portland put three pairs of runs across in the final three innings, earning their first win and giving them new life in the World Series.

“The first four innings I didn’t that confidence level was still not there,” Portland manager Frank Watson said. “Then it came back, we broke the seal.”

Taylor Candage led of with a walk and Marc Ouimet was hit by a pitch. Candage would come around on an error by the third baseman and Ouimet was plated on Matt Powers’ RBI single, taking a 2-1 lead.

Kelso tied the contest at two apiece in the fifth when Chris Pierce drove in Kelly Rice who led off the inning with a single.

Portland put their next pair of runs, both unearned, across when Jack Heary took one for the team, hit with a pitch. Matt Alves reached on an error by the shortstop. Heary would score on the third error of the inning by Kelso and Alves would score on Brian Furey’s sacrifice for the 4-2 lead.

Errors continued to haunt Kelso, committing three more in the sixth inning, allowing Powers and Reagan Flaherty to score two unearned runs for a 6-2 lead.

Three consecutive singles by Kelly Rice, Spencer Downs and Pierce put a single run across for Kelso, but the defensive damage had been done, dropping the Pacific Northwest squad record to 1-2.

“You just can’t win a game with eight errors,” Kelso coach Bob Rice said. “This is a first for us. This is just one of those games you try to avoid.”

Kelso will face the Eastern New York State champion, South Colonie today at 4 p.m. The Washington state squad will need a win to advance to the single elimination bracket that begins Wednesday.

“We just have to come out and want to prove themselves,” Rice said. “We’re a team that has to be reckoned with.”

For Portland, the last team to win a game out of the 10 competitors, the best is still expected to come.

“We are a better team than this,” coach Frank Watson said. “Our hits today are nothing (five) are nothing. We preach to them, just put the ball in play. We still haven’t hit the ball like we can.”

The Maine team has one more day left to prove their hitting prowess that Watson has eluded to when they face defending 14-year-old World Series champion, Jefferson Parish at 1 p.m. today.

Watson expects his team to ride the wave of the afternoon win into today’s pivotal contest.

“There were a lot of positive things to discuss today versus our last two games,” Watson said. “We’ve regained our confidence. If they come back tomorrow they’re in. They’re in control of their own destiny, we’ll find out tomorrow.”