Wisdom Walk-Off Win Over Southern Aroostook In Wild Quarterfinal

Two County teams meet in St. Agatha 

The quarterfinal round for high school baseball and softball playoffs was scheduled to take place on Thursday, but the rain has forced many of the games to be held off until Friday. Southern Aroostook and Wisdom baseball teams moved their gametime to noon on Thursday to beat the weather.

The third game between Wisdom and Southern Aroostook 

As the #1 team in Class D North, the Wisdom Pioneers hosted the #9 Southern Aroostook Warriors in St. Agatha. The Warriors advanced to the quarterfinals after picking up an 8-3 victory over #8 PVHS in the round of 16 on Tuesday. An 8-3 win over Jonesport-Beals put the Pioneers into the quarterfinals. Wisdom took both matchups with Southern Aroostook in the regular season by scores of 12-3 and 7-6.

Upset minded Warriors jump on the Pioneers 

Southern Aroostook jumped on Wisdom right away when Camden Porter smacked a triple to drive in Chris Caswell in the top of the first inning. Two batters later, Porter scored on an RBI single from Trafton Russell and giving the Warriors an early 2-0 lead. Russell was the starting pitcher for Southern Aroostook, and went right to work attacking the Pioneers' batters.  

AJ Lewis led off for Southern Aroostook in the top half of the third inning, hitting a solo home-run to center field and putting his team ahead 3-0. Russell and Brennan Burpee would immediately follow with singles. Ethan Collier drove in Russell on an RBI single, and Chris Caswell would later drive in Collier on a single. Hunter Burpee drew a bases loaded walk to give Southern Aroostook a 6-0 lead.

Things get crazy in the bottom of the third 

In the bottom of the third inning the Wisdom Pioneers picked up momentum and mounted a huge rally. Jack Desjardins hit a leadoff single, followed by three consecutive walks and Desjardins crossed the plate, scoring the first run of the day for Wisdom. Carter Pelletier singled in a run, followed by a two-run double hit by Kaiden Daigle to bring the Pioneers within two runs. Dom Gendreau and Aidan Barriere were hit by pitches that brought in two more runs to tie the game 6-6. Desjardins then hit a two run double to put Wisdom ahead by a score of 8-6 at the end of the third inning.

Late innings see the teams exchange blows 

Sam Roy hit a solo home-run to center field in the fourth inning to give Wisdom a 9-6 lead. In the fifth inning Southern Aroostook mounted a comeback, highlighted by a Hunter Burpee single to cut the Pioneers lead to 9-8. AJ Lewis lined a single to right field to tie the game 9-9. In the fifth inning Jack Desjardins hit a two-run single to give Wisdom a lead of 11-9. Southern Aroostook quickly responded in the top of the sixth, with Caswell and Porter driving in runs to tie the game 11-11.

Wisdom Walk-Off 

The Warriors went down in order in the top of the seventh, giving the Pioneers a chance to win the game. Dom Gendreau drew a leadoff walk and would steal second before the next batter lined out. Gendreau advanced to third base on a balk. Desjardins came to the plate and hit a fly ball to right field, deep enough to bring in Gendreau and give Wisdom the walk-off win over Southern Aroostook 12-11.

On Deck: 

Wisdom advances to the semifinal round and will host the winner of the game between Woodland and Machias.