South Portland’s Jacob Brown singled in the top of the fourth inning at Windham Thursday afternoon, then stole a pair of bases on errant Eagles pitches before Hayden Owen belted a base-hit of his own to bring Brown home again and give the Red Riots a narrow lead, 2-1. South Portland eventually added one more for a 3-1 victory.

The road win bumps South Portland to 8-1 in 2014. The Riots maintain their hold on A West’s No. 1 ranking, though the field seems wide open. Any number of teams are evenly matched and, of course, the season is just half over.

“We had, I think, nine hits and only three runs,” said South Portland head coach Mike Owens, “so we just couldn’t seem to string anything together. But we did enough to win today.”

“We haven’t exactly been throttling teams,” he said, chuckling. “We’ve been doing enough…The goal coming in was to get a top-four seed, because that allows you a bye in the playoffs, and it’s just a huge advantage.

“Right now, we’ve put ourselves in a very good position…but the league is very even, from top to bottom. Anybody can beat anybody. I think the playoffs are going to be crazy this year; should be a fun Western Maine tournament.”

Windham slips to 4-5. The Eagles linger in 14th, just outside the Heal Points playoff bracketing – but again, nothing seems sure in this year’s A West.

“I thought we played well today, against a good team for sure,” Windham head coach Brody Artes said. “The kids came ready to play, they were fired up; we just didn’t get any timely hits, we didn’t put too much pressure on them on the base path.”

The Riots scored first, in the first; Sam Troiano walked onto base in his ups, got second on Robert Graff’s single and third on Zac Marles’s single, then dashed home when Brown sac-flied to right field. A quick 1-0.

Windham, though, soon answered. Zach Alpern opened the bottom second with a base hit. Spencer Hodge followed him to the plate – and grounded out, but gave Alpern the time he needed to gain second. Tyler Johnson grounded out as well, 6-3; in fact, he nearly grounded into an unusual 6-3-5 double play that would also have caught Alpern at third, but the South Portland cross-diamond throw arrived just a slide late.

Two outs. Ethan Petty stepped into the box – and wasted no time making contact. Petty blasted a first-pitch single into left that brought Alpern home again and tied the game, 1-1.

That would prove the sum of Windham’s offense on the day, however. Though they landed additional runners on in later innings, they couldn’t manage to usher any across the plate. Josh Dugas slammed a sliding triple into deep right in the third, but got caught out in a pickle when Zach Conley missed the bunt half of a suicide squeeze.

“I thought it would come down to the little things,” Owens said. “We got a couple big two-out hits, and they didn’t execute their squeeze. I thought they did an excellent job with runners on all day, they just couldn’t get that big hit.

“We made some nice defensive plays to save us, get us out of some innings, and our first baseman made a couple nice picks over there to save some runs.”

The Riots, meanwhile, added the Brown/Owen run in the fourth, and another in the seventh when Troiano drove a single into right-center, then gained second on Austin Mills’s 6-3 ground out and home on a Graff shot, also into right-center. 3-1 the final.

“It’s been up and down for everybody,” Artes said of the Eagles’ bats. “It’s been tough as far as consistency goes. We have guys that spray their hits, here and there, once out of every four or five at bats. But at the end of the day, I’m pretty confident we’ve got guys who can step up and get a big hit when they need to. I think we have several of those guys.”

Graff, who started for the Riots, gets the W. Tanner Laberge, who pitched a complete game, takes the loss for the Eagles.

“I was very impressed with Tanner,” Artes said, brushing aside the defeat. “I thought he threw the ball very well today. Unfortunately, we didn’t score enough runs for him today. Those kinds of outings, we’re going to need from him down the stretch.”

Owens happily praised Troiano, the Riots’ lead-off man, for “doing a good job setting the tone” on offense, and Brown, who’s “doing a good job swinging the bat” as well. “Zac Marles is swinging a good bat…but it’s really been a team effort. If one guy doesn’t do it, somebody else seems to be picking us up.”

South Portland faces No. 4 Portland (6-3) at home on Tuesday, May 20 (after deadline); Windham, meanwhile, dropped their follow-up match on Friday the 16th at No. 8 Cheverus (5-4), 9-4. They get another chance to land on their feet on Thursday the 22nd (after deadline), when they host 13th-ranked Deering (3-6).

Windham pitcher Tanner Laberge lets fly a ball toward home early in the Eagles’ bout with South Portland on Thursday.The throw to home reaches Windham catcher Spencer Hodge just ahead of South Portland runner Sam Troiano.Windham’s Andrew Whiting dives back to first.South Portland’s Jacob Brown skitters back to base on a throw from the mound.Eagle Zach Alpern descends into a slide for second, while Red Riots second baseman Jon Vickers ducks in for the tag. Alpern arrived safely.Windham’s Tyler Johnson drops the bat to run after knocking an infield grounder.South Portland’s Sam Troiano crosses home in the top of the seventh at Windham Thursday, giving his team their 3-1 lead.One Red Riot’s glove, dropped after their victory in Windham Thursday, lingers near the dugout while in the background, the team and their coaches confer.

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