Houlton Little League baseball, softball playoffs get under way last week

The Houlton Little League started its 9-10-year-old playoff games, with Mooers Realty meeting Houlton Rotary for the fifth time this season last Saturday in the opening game.     Mooers Realty pulled out a 4-2 win.
The Houlton Rotary Club put a run on the scoreboard in the first inning after Parker Brewer hit a ground ball to score Garrett Putnam.
Both teams would bear down through the next four innings, as the game became a pitchers duel between Rotary hurlers Brewer, Putnam and Garrett Ring and Mooers’ Ben Tuttle.
It was a scoreless battle until the fifth inning when Ben Boutilier’s timely two out, two-run double gave Mooers Realty a 2-1 lead. Rotary tied the game in the sixth when Ring hit a booming triple and scored to tie the game on Putnam’s groundout to force extra innings.
Mooers Realty scored twice in the seventh inning to take the win behind pitcher Payton Porter, who held Rotary scoreless in final 1 2/3 innings.
Tuttle pitched 5 1/3 innings for the winners, allowing only two hits with 11 strikeouts. He also added two hits. Porter hit an RBI-single to give Mooers an insurance run in the seventh.
In the second 9-10-year-old matchup, Houlton Wal-Mart came from behind to defeat the Elks Club, 5-4.
The Elks Club took a 4-0 lead, as Ryan Dee singled in the top of the first and tripled to drive in two runs in the third. But, Dallas Moore of Wal-Mart cut the lead to within a run, 4-3, when he banged a three-run homer in the bottom of the third.
The score held until the bottom of the sixth when it was Moore once again coming through for Wal-Mart. Moore singled, stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch to knot the game at 4-all. One out later, Cameron Graham walked, stole second and third, scoring the winning run on a wild pitch.
Elks’ Dee went 3-for-3, with two singles and a triple to drive in three runs, while Nick Cowperthwaite singled for Elks. Dee pitched five full innings, giving up a hit, two walks and striking out 12.
Moore pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, five walks, while striking out eight. Graham pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief, allowing a hit, a walk and striking out five.
In the first round of the 11-12-year-old playoffs, Houlton Farms Dairy defeated the Savings Bank of Maine, 11-5.
For Houlton Farms Dairy, Isaiah Straubel pitched three innings of two-hit ball, walking five and striking out six.  Jon Tuttle pitched the last three innings, walking four, striking out four and allowing two hits.
Leading Houlton Farms Dairy’s offense were Tuttle — double, single and RBIs, Tyler Bartlett, triple, double and one RBI and Chase Brewer, with a double and a single to drive in a run.
For Savings Bank of Maine, Cameron Clark doubled twice to drive in a run, while Barrett Dunn singled and brought in two runs.
In Little League softball action on Saturday, Aroostook Auto Glass swept a doubleheader from F.A. Peabody Company.
In the opener, Aroostook Auto Glass won 19-15 behind pitcher Kaitlin Wiggins, while Rebecca Moreno, Makayla McGuire and Jamiee Theriault pitched for F.A. Peabody.
Leading hitters for Aroostook Auto Glass were Katie Condon and Tanika Toby, while Madalene Anderson and Victoria Holmes led F.A. Peabody offensively.
In the second game, Aroostook Auto Glass won 10-3 behind pitchers Nichole Goguen and Condon. Lily Hanning, Tanika Toby and Chelsea Gentle led the team from the plate.
For F.A. Peabody, Hannah Gervais took the loss off the mound, while backing her own cause with a single. Anderson also added a single.