Wildcats and Panthers are playoff-bound
Sports Reporter
The playoffs are set to begin next week, and it appears the Presque Isle Wildcats and Central Aroostook Panthers baseball teams have secured berths in the upcoming tournaments.
PI, by virtue of its 10-5 record entering today’s regular season finale in Caribou, is currently in sixth place with 93.75 points. A win this afternoon could move the ’Cats as high as fourth place in the Eastern Maine Class B standings. The final Heal Point rankings will be released later this week.
Central Aroostook has games remaining against Fort Fairfield and Wisdom and the Panthers are currently third in EM Class D with a 12-2 mark.
Out of the Class D playoff picture are Fort Fairfield (6-8) in 11th place, Ashland (3-11) in 14th and Washburn (2-13) in 15th. None of the three teams have enough points remaining on their schedule to jump into the necessary top nine.
The preliminary round of the playoffs gets under way Tuesday, June 8, with the quarterfinals set for Thursday, June 10 and the semifinals Saturday, June 12.
Summaries of games played through Monday are as follows:
Bucksport 12, Presque Isle 9 – Bucksport banged out 15 hits, three by winning pitcher Evan Eldridge, to outslug the Wildcats in game one of a doubleheader played in Presque Isle Monday.
Dillon Kingsbury doubled and singled and drove in a pair of runs for the Wildcats, while Isaac LaJoie chipped in with a pair of hits.
Bucksport 3, Presque Isle 1 – Tim Nason tossed a five-hitter, struck out four, walked two and helped his own cause with a run-scoring single in the sixth inning as Bucksport completed an important doubleheader sweep.
Brennen Shaw doubled and singled to lead PI at the plate. Matt Chasse was the hard-luck loser on the mound, going the distance and allowing eight hits and only one run after the first inning.
Van Buren 6, Ashland 3 –Derrick Rossignol hit a second-inning grand slam to help lift host Van Buren over Ashland Friday.
Rossignol was the winning pitcher as well, going the distance and logging 12 strikeouts.
Royce MacDonald hit a triple and drove in a run for the Hornets. Jordan Beaulieu doubled and singled with an RBI.
Presque Isle 28, Fort Kent 2 – On Thursday in Fort Kent, Brennen Shaw had a big day at the plate as the Wildcats won in a rout.
Shaw slammed two homers, including a grand slam in the third inning, plus two doubles and a single and knocked in nine runs to pace the PI attack.
Dillon Kingsbury contributed a three-run homer and two singles, Matt Chasse ripped a two-run homer in the Presque Isle’s 11-run first inning and Isaac Lajoie had a double and a single for the ‘Cats.
Shaw, Ryley Norton, Evan Waddell and Wilder York combined on the three-hitter.
Katahdin 25, Ashland 0 – At Stacyville in a game played Thursday, Mark McGraw drove in five runs with a three-run homer, a double and a single as the Cougars scored 15 times in the first inning in the blowout win.
Ashland was held to one hit, with MacDonald’s single the lone safety.
Madawaska 14, Central Aroostook 5 – The Owls pulled off the upset at home Thursday, as Deejay Gendreau tossed the complete-game five-hitter against Class D power Central Aroostook.
The Owls were down 4-0 before rallying for five runs in the third, spearheaded by Gendreau’s two-run single and a Kirk Michaud two-run triple.
Logan Thomas had a two-run triple, Mitch Folsom singled twice and Dan Brewer doubled to lead CA at the plate. Logan McLaughlin suffered the pitching loss.
Washburn 7, Ashland 6 – The Beavers won for only the second time all season when Jordan McLaughlin doubled home a run and Sal Viola added a sacrifice fly to key Washburn’s two-run rally in the top of the seventh last Wednesday in Ashland.
Viola also doubled and Nick Bragg hit a two-run double in the sixth to help the Beavers rally from an early 6-1 deficit. Tony Viola got the pitching victory, with Kyle McLaughlin retiring the only batter he faced on a long fly ball with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh for the save.
MacDonald doubled twice and scored two runs for Ashland. Amos Ward had two singles and an RBI, while Lucas Hafford added a pair of hits.
