STANDISH — Troy Reynolds was setting them down early.
The Searsport senior had 11 strikeouts through the first four innings on his way to 15 total in a seven-inning, complete game effort to lead the Vikings to a 6-2 victory over Valley at Larry Mahaney Diamond at St. Joseph’s College on Wednesday in the Class D South regional final.
“He struck out a lot and he walked a few, he didn’t have his ‘A’ game,” Searsport coach John Frye said. “It was a struggle out there today for him to throw. You know what? Even with him at his B/C game, he’s better than most pitchers we see. He battled all day, but he came up big.”
Reynolds threw 162 pitches, allowing eight walks on four hits. He also pitched in last year’s regional and state finals, both of which the defending Class D champs won.
His counterpart, the Cavaliers’ Cody Laweryson, who’s headed to the University of Maine to play baseball, also went the distance, striking out seven while allowing five hits and walking two.
Missed opportunities cost Valley. Reynolds never had a clean inning, but Valley left runners on in each stanza. The Cavaliers loaded the bases in the fourth, and left two on in the fifth and sixth innings.
“We stranded too many guys,” Valley coach Scott Laweryson said. “We made way too many mistakes in the game.
Searsport (16-3) capitalized on Valley’s errors in the bottom of the first. Eric Phillips reached on error by shortstop Luke Malby. Kyle Moore drove him in from first with a double over Brandon Thomas head in center field.
Mitchell Philbrook reached first when the ball took a bad bounce over Malby into left field, and Moore advanced to third. Moore scored when Valley couldn’t turn a double play.
Searsport added a run in bottom of the third when Barrett Grant led off with a walk. He scored when Eric Phillips grounded out.
The Vikings added three more in the bottom of the fifth. The inning started when Matt Barlow appeared to bunted a ball off his helmet with two strikes. The umpires convened and ruled the pitch hit him in the helmet.
“When they got together, I didn’t think they would (listen) to me anyway,” Scott Laweryson said. “That’s one of the worst calls I have ever seen down here. The guy squares to bunt, it hit the bat then the helmet, they give him a hit-by-pitch? It’s completely wrong if you ask me.”
The coach added, though, that the umpires weren’t the reason his team lost. The Cavaliers struggled all game, he said.
Barlow reached third when Cody Laweryson overthrew the first baseman on a Grant grounder. Grant went to second on the play. Barlow scored on a bloop single into short right by Phillips. Moore drove in Grant and Phillips with a single to make it 6-0.
The Cavaliers scored twice in the top of the seventh when Cody Laweryson came into score on a grounder and Collin Miller stole home for the second run with two outs.
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