Fort Fairfield Survives Furious Hodgdon Rally; Win 9-8

Class D North Battle 

The Fort Fairfield Tigers are one of the youngest teams in Class D North with multiple eighth graders, freshmen and sophomores starting throughout the season. Fort Fairfield was playing their final home game and honored their lone senior, Elijah Lyons.

Young Tigers 

Fort Fairfield started the day with a record of 4-8 on the season, while the Hodgdon Hawks came in with a record of 7-5. The two teams are separated by fractions of a point in the heal point standings.

Fast start for Fort Fairfield

The hometown Tigers jumped on Hodgdon early, scoring three runs in the first inning. Zackary Gerhauser drove in a run on a sharp single, and Fort Fairfield added two more runs on a hit-by-pitch and an error. Hodgdon scored a run in the top of the second inning, before Fort Fairfield added two more runs in the bottom half of the inning, highlighted by a Lyons double to center field. The Tigers held a 5-1 lead through the first two innings of play.

Here come the Hawks, late 

Fort Fairfield scored a single run in the fourth inning, before adding three runs in the fifth inning and building a 9-1 lead. Cayden Ala and Charlie Griffeth added RBI's during the fifth inning rally for the Tigers. David Tuttle and Garrett Estabrook led a sixth inning rally by Hodgdon, to cut the Tigers lead to 9-4 going into the final inning of play. A seventh inning rally by the Hawks loaded the bases and a wild pitch brought Hodgdon to within one run of the Tigers. Cayden Ala came in to pitch for the Tigers with two outs and the tying and go-ahead runs on base for the Hawks. Ala was able to strike out the Hodgdon batter and the Tigers escaped with a 9-8 victory over Hodgdon.

On Deck: 

Hodgdon falls to 7-6 on the season and they play their final game on Wednesday against the Washburn Beavers. Fort Fairfield finishes 5-8 and now will wait for the final standings to be released to determine their preliminary round matchup.