CAMBRIDGE — Tanner Beck’s extra-base hit with two away in the top of the ninth inning plated Scottie Ford with what held up to be the winning run Thursday when Kent County ousted host Cambridge-South Dorchester, 11-10, in the opening round of the Class 1A high school baseball tournament.
KCHS (3-14) halted a 10-game slump, which began with a one-run loss to East Region I foe Cambridge in the nightcap of an April 10 doubleheader at Kent County.
Kent County also avenged last year’s 3-1 loss to Cambridge in the first round of the playoffs.
Junior Noah Iacona notched the win in relief of classmate Aiden Crouch, a crafty left-hander who came off the mound after throwing 99 pitches into the sixth inning.
Crouch helped his cause with three base hits.
He got an unexpected boost from the bats of Tyrel “Teeter” Dean, Zayvion Brown, Drew Haas and Nate Sutton — each with at least one hit — in the lower half of the order.
Outfielder Brown, who came off the bench, and second baseman Sutton, who has played sparingly, swatted two-run doubles in the Trojans’ sixth inning to turn a 9-6 deficit into a 10-9 lead. Brown brought home Ford (single) and Beck (single), and subsequently scored ahead of Hunter Hawn (single) on Sutton’s two-bagger.
Cambridge (3-15) pushed one run across in the home half of the sixth to tie it up at 10-all, after leading 4-3 after two complete innings, 6-3 after three, 7-6 after four and 9-6 after five.
Following scoreless seventh and eighth innings, the Trojans regained the lead for good in the top of ninth. With two away, Ford was hit by a pitch to extend the inning. He scored what would prove to be the winning run one batter later courtesy of Beck, the only senior in the Trojans’ lineup on this day.
Braden Wilson singled behind Beck, but the next KCHS batter struck out, leaving runners on the corners.
Nursing an 11-10 lead, Iacona retired the Vikings in order on a strikeout, a pop fly to first baseman Beck in foul territory and a flyout to left-center field that Brown tracked down to end the game.
Iacona threw only 34 pitches to get the win.
“We hit better, much, much better,” Kent County head coach Jason Conner told The Evening Enterprise in a telephone interview Friday.
“Defensively, we played much better than we had been playing,” he added. “We made a couple of errors, but we didn’t let that get us down.”
One of the bright spots was Sutton’s unassisted double play.
And to top it off, Conner said, “Aiden pitched a very, very good game and carried us.”
KCHS should have won in the regulation seven innings, but stranded too many runners — including once leaving the bases loaded.
The Trojans move on to the semifinal round of the Class 1A East Region I bracket, and will travel to top-seeded St. Michaels (12-5) on Saturday, May 10 for a 10 a.m. game — weather and field conditions permitting.
The Saints swept the home-and-away regular-season series.
In the other half of the bracket, No. 2 seed and defending region champion Colonel Richardson (12-6) will host No. 3 seed North Dorchester (8-10) in the semifinal round.
The title game is May 13 at the higher seed.
St. Michaels, Colonel Richardson and North Dorchester received first-round byes.
