FALMOUTH—It took the Falmouth Yachtsmen a few innings to get warmed up Wednesday afternoon, but once they did, they overpowered the Wells Warriors with a barrage of runs, 12 in the fifth inning, en route to a 13-2 mercy rule victory at Falmouth in the regular season finale.

With the win, its fourth in a row to close the regular season, Falmouth (10-6) is likely the No. 6 seed for the Western B playoffs and projects to visit No. 3 Cape Elizabeth (12-4) June 9 in the quarterfinals.

Severe wind and thunderstorm warnings were in effect in the area Wednesday afternoon, which delayed the contest a solid 45 minutes. However, the rain held off for the most part and after the delay, Dillon Dresser was ready to take the hill for Falmouth and Josh Ingalls for Wells.

Dresser had a rough first inning, but struck out two batters and left the bases loaded to escape early damage.

The Warriors got a run in the second inning after three consecutive hits to jump out to the early lead. Joey Spinelli hit a line drive to left field to score Zach DeShaies to make it 1-0 Wells.

The Warriors got another run in the third on a solo home run by Louis DiTomasso. The pitch was a low and outside curveball that DiTomasso golfed just barely over the fence in left-center.

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“I don’t know how he the ball out,” said Falmouth coach Kevin Winship. “That was a great pitch. When he (Dresser) came back in, I told him as a pitcher sometimes you just have to tip your hat.”

Dresser battled back and got Ingalls to strike out looking on an outside fastball to end the Wells attack.

“That first inning wasn’t so sharp, but he maintained his composure and came back and threw great,” said Winship.

The Yachtsmen got on the scoreboard for the first time in the bottom of the third inning on a Matt MacDowell sacrifice fly which scored Joe Barns. With one out, Barns and Dresser hit consecutive singles. Dresser’s single was misplayed briefly in the outfield, which allowed Barns and Dresser to both move into scoring position for MacDowell.

After three innings, the score was 2-1 Wells.

Dresser breezed through the fourth and fifth inning. He threw five innings on the afternoon, allowing two earned runs, scattering seven hits, walking none, while striking out six to earn the win. He threw just 70 pitches.

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The merry-go-round got underway in the bottom of the fifth inning, as the Yachtsmen sent 16 batters to the plate.

Try your best to keep up with the summary.

Ryan MacDonald led off with a line drive double into the right-centerfield gap. Barns then poked a single into right, which scored MacDonald to tie the game, 2-2.

Falmouth kept hitting the petal hard from there.

Dresser was hit by a pitch and MacDowell followed with a ground rule double that brought home Barns for a 3-2 score. Ben Goffin then popped out to first base for the first out, but Andrew Emple crushed the first pitch he saw over the centerfield fence for a three-run homer, making it 6-2. Dresser and MacDowell scored on the blast.

Grayson Beressi then reached on an error, but was retired at second base as the next batter, Brett Emmertz, grounded into a fielder’s choice for the second out.

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After the fielder’s choice, Falmouth sent eight straight batters to the dish as out number three was never recorded.

Drew Proctor smoked a double down the leftfield line bringing in Emmertz for a 7-2 lead. MacDonald then flared an opposite field single into shallow left to score Proctor, making it 8-2.

With Barns at the plate, MacDonald stole second and advanced to third on the wild throw by Wells catcher DiTomasso. Barns drew a four pitch walk. Next up was Dresser, who watched a pitch get away from DiTomasso that allowed MacDonald to score easily and Barns to move up to second. Dresser quickly delivered an RBI single to right that scored Barns for a 10-2 lead. MacDowell got hit by a pitch, which prompted Wells coach Jay Audet to pull Ingalls and bring in right fielder Kevin Woods.

“We wanted to get Josh some work because he’s probably going to be doing some pitching in the playoffs,” Audet said. “We knew we were going to face a good team that needed, for (Heal Point) position purposes, a win. They hit the ball like crazy in that inning and scored a lot of runs. So caps off to them.”

Goffin was next to join in. MacDowell and Dresser advanced to second and third on a wild pitch, and then Goffin hit an infield single to the right side that brought home Dresser for an 11-2 score. Emple was also hit by a pitch to load the bases for Beressi. Beressi jumped on the first pitch and blasted it over the left centerfield fence on a bounce for a walk-off ground rule double for a final score of 13-2. Goffin and MacDowell scored the last two runs for Falmouth.

“When we went down to Florida for spring break, we hit the ball great down there. We had the warm weather,” said Winship. “Then we came back here and faced some adversity with the bad weather. Now it seems that the weather has heated up so have our bats. Offensively, we’re pretty dangerous right now.”

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Barns, Dresser, and MacDonald had two hits apiece for the Yachtsmen.

Dresser, MacDowell, and MacDonald scored two runs, and Barns scored three times.

“It took us a couple times through the lineup to kind of figure him (Ingalls) out, but after about our third time through we kind of figured it out and it was nice to finally put up some runs in the end,” said Dresser. “That fifth inning, one through nine every single guy I think might have got a hit. It was nice to have everybody contributing.”

Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth met twice this year, with the teams splitting, each winning on the road. On May 10, the Capers won at Falmouth, 5-2. Ten days later, the Yachtsmen rolled at Cape Elizabeth, 8-3.

The teams have only met once prior in the postseason, a 7-4 victory for the Capers in the 2002 preliminary round.

Falmouth, despite its earlier struggles this spring and its seed, appears to be as dangerous as anyone as the second season dawns.

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“I got to think we are a dangerous team going into the playoffs,” Winship said. “Dillon will throw the first game and he’s throwing as good as anybody right now and offensively we’re putting a lot of runs up on the board. I like our chances.”

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BOX SCORE

Falmouth 13 Wells 2 (5 innings)

W- 011 00- 2 7 4
F- 001 0(12)- 13 13 1

WP- Dresser
LP- Ingalls


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