Windham varsity baseball falls to Marshwood in home opener

By Matt Pascarella

Windham’s varsity baseball team took the field against Marshwood for their season home opener on Wednesday, April 17 but fell to Marshwood, 8-2.

Windham senior Login Desrochers runs to first base after
hitting the ball to the outfield during the prep baseball
season-opener against Marshwood on Wednesday, April 17
at Windham High School. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA  

The Eagles had kept it a scoreless game for four innings, but a few key hits by the Hawks in the top of the fifth inning gave them a big lead and Windham struggled to recover. Although Windham did cross the plate and have a few hits, Marshwood’s fifth-inning boost was too much to overcome.

“We definitely need to do a better job of handling that,” said Windham senior Login Desrochers. “It’s rough but we played really well the rest of the game ... we just got to focus on limiting the damage when we get in situations like that. I think the first half of the game we swung the bats well; we did pretty good in the field. We got to string our hits together, they were a little spread out. We had too many strikeouts today, way too many swings and misses. Guys need to get together and rally in big moments, but other than that, we’re looking pretty good.”

Windham defense really limited Marshwood’s opportunities in the first four innings. Senior Brady Harvie was on the mound and struck out eight and only let up three hits.

Desrochers singled in the first inning, but unfortunately was left on base.

“That’s the type of situation where they just got five or six runs; there’s no reason we can’t get five or six runs,” said Windham varsity baseball coach Chris Doughty. “That’s baseball – aside from that big inning, I thought we played pretty even. Their starter is arguably the best pitcher in the state. I felt like we were prepared – a couple times I felt like we didn’t take advantage of opportunities we had; our energy was a bit deflated after that [fifth] inning. You can have a big inning at any time ... especially with the talent we have on the team. Once we get on base we have a ton of speed. Still feel really good about the team, we’re going to have a great season.”

Harvie doubled in the bottom of the fifth inning. Sophomore Ethan Clapp singled and brought Harvie home.

“Felt good going into that fifth inning,” said Harvie. “I had been pitching good that other four, kind of lost a couple of my pitches and couldn’t throw them for strikes. Hit a couple batters and had a rough inning but powered through. We made some good plays in the field; we need to get our bats going some more ... we got to be able to hit through our order and at least get the ball in play; we got to avoid that blow up inning and try to play seven solid innings of baseball.”

In the bottom of the sixth inning, senior Erik Bowen was hit by a pitch; he quickly stole second base and crossed home plate after Desrochers hit a line drive to center field.

Windham battled in the bottom of the seventh inning but could not make up the difference.

“We were good in our own individual ways for the first few innings,” said senior Ryan Smyth who pitched the final inning. “We got to collect as a team ... we got to get that timely hitting down and score runs. You can’t just take that one inning and be like, ‘the game’s over.’ It’s something we got to work on as a team and we’ll definitely be able to get there by the first couple games. That was a great pitcher we faced today – it’s not easy to face someone like him; we’ll adjust and get there.”

According to Smyth, Windham was very aggressive in the count, solid in the field and defense was great.

Windham has already made improvements in just their second regular season game on Monday, April 22 when sophomore Wyatt Washburn pitched a no-hitter against Cheverus at Cheverus High School in Portland and the Eagles won that game, 11-0. <