Pitching has been a constant throughout the baseball season for the Skowhegan River Hawks, but run production has stalled at times. The bats, however, were alive and well Tuesday afternoon in South Paris as Skowhegan beat Oxford Hills 10-4.
After a scoreless opening frame, Chance Tibbetts notched an RBI through a sacrifice fly, scoring Hunter McEwen with two outs in the second inning. Oxford Hills would respond with a run of its own in the bottom half of the third, scoring via a Brady Truman sacrifice bunt. The Vikings stayed hot into the fourth, adding two more runs after Truman was struck by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Connor Fitts found home on a wild pitch.
The River Hawks evened things up in the fifth inning through Brady Dunlap, who singled, scoring two with the help of an Oxford Hills error. The sixth inning was all Skowhegan, with five runs coming around to score. The first of the inning came on Jackson Hight’s bunt attempt that scored Quincy McCray through an error. On the very next at-bat, defensive mistakes would continue to plague the Vikings. Cooper Bardwell scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-1; then Chance Tibbetts reached on a fly ball to left field that should have been caught, with Hight scoring this time for Skowhegan. Jackson Quinn then ripped a line-drive triple to center field, sending Chance Tibbetts in to score. Finally, Skowhegan slugger Tyler Annis gathered his fifth RBI of the year, grounding out and scoring Quinn to make it 8-3.
Connor Fitts continued his strong day at the plate for Oxford Hills, pulling a run back through an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. He would go 3/3 on the day.
Skowhegan got two insurance runs in the seventh to round out the scoring. Hight singled to right field, sending HcEwen home, and Chance Tibbetts also singled to right, with Bardwell coming in to score.
Silas Tibbetts picked up the win for Skowhegan, pitching all seven innings. He allowed four runs on nine hits, striking out five and walking one. Eli Soehren started for Oxford Hills, taking the loss. He went five innings, giving up six runs (four earned) on five hits, four strikeouts, and two walks. Nick Binette pitched the final two innings for the Vikings, giving up four runs (two earned) on four hits, striking out three, and walking none.
Skowhegan finishes the regular season 11-5 and currently sits as the number three seed in the Class A Northern Maine Heal Point Standings. Oxford Hills closes their regular season at 12-4 and remain in second place in Class A North.
