July | 2011 | McClelland Miscellanea

Central Maine – 2011 Maine Babe Ruth state champs

(Harrison ME) Central Maine captured the 2011 Babe Ruth (13-year-olds) state baseball championship at Harrison’s Field of Dreams on sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Hurricanes were easy, 13-2, winners over Coastal South in the final game. An additional game would have been called for if once-defeated Coastal South had won this game in the double-elimination tournament.

Unfortunately for Coastal South, their previous loss had been a 16-2 thumping by these same undefeated Central Mainers the day before. Things didn’t go much better the second time around.

Central Maine now moves on to the New England tournament which runs from July 30-August 4 in Norwalk (CT).

Ben Frazee of Central Maine gets the well-deserved MVP trophy.

The tourney MVP was CM’s Ben Frazee from Fairfield. In the championship game he struck out eight, allowed just four hits, scored three runs, and had an RBI triple. That’s what being an MVP is all about!

The Hurricane’s broke open a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the second with six severely tainted runs. CS pitcher John Parker was victimized by five errors behind him in the infield. Only a self-protecting catch of a liner right at him saved John from giving up even more runs.

Now down, 7-1, the Coastal Southerners had a promising third inning started after two walks and an RBI double by Zach Meggison but Ben Frazee struck out John Parker and Andrew LaCavera to end the threat.

Central Maine benefited from two more CS errors (they had nine in the game) in the bottom of the 4th to gather five more runs and put CS into mercy rule territory with a 13-2 lead.

Coastal South had an answering double in the do-or-die top of the fifth, from John Parker but nothing else. First baseman Nick Mayo’s unassisted handling of Paul Cressey’s third-out grounder sealed the deal for Central Maine.

John Parker had two of CS’s four hits.

Third baseman Trevor Gettig of Central Maine had three hits and three stolen bases.

I am not a professional photographer. If anyone has an interest in the pictures included here I will be glad to email them to you.

(Mistakes happen in game stories. I apologize in advance.)

Central Maine hoists the championship plaque.

Central Maine watches as Coastal South gets medals.

post-game handshakes

Jonny Wilson on his way to winning the 35th 4 on the 4th.

Chris Harmon (#1924), Richard Klauber (#1625), and Jonny Wilson (#1516) at the start.

(Bridgton ME) Jonny Wilson from Falmouth (ME) and the University of Richmond won the 35th 4 on the 4th road race on Monday morning at Bridgton in 20:19.

A record-setting 1849 runners finished the race on an overcast morning with temperatures close to 70 degrees at the muggy 8AM start. In typical Maine weather fashion, the temperatures rose into the 80s by early afternoon before a rowdy thunder/lightning storm appeared in mid-afternoon only to be followed by very pleasant temps in the upper 70s later in the afternoon. The good news was that the warm weather and the showers didn’t show up until after the race was over.

The first five finishers (Jonny Wilson, Richard Klauber, Christopher Harmon, John Vallo, and Sean Livingston) ran from the turn onto Main Street past The Magic Lantern with comfortable cushions between each other.

Jonny’s lead was a little difficult to gauge because the police escort came down part of the hill before turning off. Once the escort left it was clear that Jonny (red shirt senior on this year’s Spider track team) was not going to be caught by Richard Klauber. Last year’s winner, Phil Richert (19:58), was past The Magic Lantern before another runner appeared at the top of the hill.

Pickles Lajoie in 6th with plenty of competition closing fast.

The final positioning for places 6-11 (Pickles Lajoie, Silas Eastman, Tim Even, Erica Jesseman, Pete Bottomley, and John Barbour) was settled after the Magic Lantern. Pickles had 6th going past me but had to run for his life after Reny’s to keep that spot.

Tim Even made up at least three spots after he passed by me.

My wife and I always are on hand at the start to make our winner selections. She had Phil Richert last year! This time she went with Richard Klauber who finished second. I went with Tim Even. He finished fifth last year but this time lost contact with the top five and had to sprint in the last hundred yards to get 8th.

John Vallo (4th), Pickles Lajoie (6th), and Tim Even (8th) all were connected to the University of Southern Maine’s track team this past season.

Christopher Harmon (3rd) was a senior at Maine this year and part of their track program.

Sean Livingston (5th) won this race in 2005 and 2006. The 42-year-old from Barrington, Rhode Island coaches cross country at Roger Williams University in Bristol (RI).

Silas Eastman with Erica Jesseman gaining ground on the left.

Silas Eastman (7th) is only 16. He was 6th last year and 7th the year before as a 14-year-old. He’ll be a senior at nearby Fryeburg Academy in the fall.

Erica Jesseman (9th) was the top woman finisher this year, last year, and in 2006. The former UNH runner dropped nearly a minute off her time (23:06) last year to this year (22:10).

Pete Bottomley (10th) finished ninth last year. The 49-year-old started running as a senior at Oxford (ME) Hills and then went on to make the cross country team at Maine.

John Barbour (11th) is a 57-year-old who qualified in 1988 and 1996 for the Olympic Marathon Trials. Recently he started an indoor track team at Manchester-Essex High school in Manchester, Massachusetts. He lives in Gloucester (MA).

Kristin Barry was top Maine woman runner at 2010 Beach to the Beacon 10K

Kristin Barry (12th) helped run the Cheverus track program this school year. She is 37 and the mother of two. She was a very successful runner at Dartmouth before going to Georgetown to become a lawyer. Last year she was the 10th woman finisher at the Beach to Beacon 10K and the first female Mainer to cross the finish line.

I am not a professional photographer but like the proverbial blind squirrel I do happen into an acorn occasionally! I do not charge for any of the pictures you see in this entry. I will send pictures via email to anyone interested. My email address is in the CONTACT at the top of the blog page.

(Any of my statistical information and caption information is unofficial.)