Windham varsity baseball exhibits good energy in season opener

By Matt Pascarella

Windham senior Brady Afthim meets his teammates
at home plate after hitting a home run in the bottom 
of the first inning during Windham's home opener
against Biddeford on Friday, April 23. The game
was tied in the top of the seventh inning before
Biddeford was able to pull ahead to win, 8-6.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

In their first game of the spring season, the Windham varsity baseball team took on Biddeford, at Windham on Friday, April 23 and started strong against the Tigers and battled inning after inning to keep the game close. Ultimately Biddeford managed to get by and won 8-6.

Senior Brady Afthim got things going for the Eagles in the bottom of the first when he sent the ball over the fence of left-center field to give Windham a 1-0 lead.

Biddeford answered and tied the game in the top of the second and took a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Windham junior Colby Raynor doubled. After a base hit, senior Ryan Silva made it to third after a passed ball; this brought in two runs. Freshman Login Desrochers brought in Silva; 4-2, Windham.

Biddeford tied the game at four in the top of the third.

Windham got things going again in the bottom of the fourth, when senior Jayson Plummer singled. Desrochers singled, as did Afthim. Windham had loaded the bases. Sophomore Alex Wing steps up to the plate and brought in Plummer and Desrochers making it, 6-4, Windham.

“Overall, (the team did) pretty solid,” said Afthim. “There were a couple mistakes here and there. It’s a pretty solid foundation to go off. I think we did pretty good for the first game out here.”

In the top of the fifth inning, Biddeford had loaded the bases. Afthim had been on the mound all game and held off any runners from making it to home plate by striking out three consecutive batters and ended Biddeford’s inning with the bases loaded.

In the top of the seventh, a triple from Biddeford tied the game at six. The Tigers scored two more runs before the inning was over.

“That was a game of the team that made the least mistakes was going to win,” said Windham coach, Cody Dube. “We battled, we had good momentum, good energy, good at-bats, which is nice to see early on.” <