False Starting

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The beauty of one-and-done tournament play is that anything can happen in a single elimination game. Your best player can have a terrible day and your second baseman can turn into Mark Lemke when you least expect it. You just never know!

So when #8 Falmouth chased Gorham ace and Gatorade POTY Hunter Finck from their quaterfinal matchup with the team widely considered to be the best in the state, they had to feel amazing. They led 6-0 in the fourth inning and then the baseball gods spoke.

As Travis summarized, the skies opened (I think I drove through that when it came up the coast) and the lightning sent everyone for cover. When the rain finally let up, the field was unplayable and the game was unable to resume.

If this was a MLB game (or a game where the umps screwed up), they would just pick up the game from where they left off, with Falmouth leading 6-0, but that's not the rule in high school...for some reason. They have to restart from the beginning at 0-0, which is a mulligan for Gorham and an absolutely brutal turn of events for Falmouth.

They'll start it all over today at 4:30 at Gorham. The good news for Falmouth, if you can call it that, is that the pitches Finck threw in the non-game still count. So he won't be available today for Gorham.

Michael Hoffer was there...or was he?

Top-ranked Gorham gets an assist from Mother Nature as big deficit to Falmouth wiped out due to thunderstorm

GORHAM—The top-ranked Gorham baseball team was on life support Thursday afternoon against No. 8 Falmouth in a Class A South quarterfinal round playoff game and needed a miracle to continue its season. And with all appearing lost, Mother Nature did the Rams a solid. Leaving the Navigators exasperated

Hoffer's High School SportsMichael Hoffer

It was a bad day to be one of the top teams in Class A.

South Portland, #2 in both the Varsity Maine poll and the Power Rankings, faced a Noble team they beat 5-0 all the way back in April. Noble struggled down the stretch, losing 3 of their final 4 before besting Massabesic in the prelim, so it seemed reasonable that SoPo would be able to handle them. And if I told you that the Red Riots got a 14-strikeout 3-hitter from Hudson Iacuessa, you'd pencil them into the semifinals. But Sean Sullivan went the distance for Noble on 97 pitches and drove in the only run of the game in 8th inning to give the Knights a 1-0 win in extras.

The 10 seed will take on Cheverus in the semis after the Stags needed a RBI single in the 8th from Grady Hughes to get by Sanford.

In short, A South had a Day.

I went to Waldoboro for the start of Medomak Valley's softball title defense against Greely. After a 1-4 start, Greely had won 12 of their last 13 to grab the 8 seed and a shot at the champs. Unlike Falmouth, Greely was unable to chase Medomak's ace, as Sidney Nicholls struck out Sophie Smith to lead off the 2nd for her 400th career strikeout. She then proceeded to strike out 9 straight hitters (she finished with 15Ks). But Greely was able to stay close and when Medomak loaded the bases with 1 out in the 3rd and their 4/5/6 hitters up and only got 1 run out of it, Greely had to be smelling an upset. But that was the only run Nicholls needed. She didn't allow the ball to leave the infield and the Panthers strung together 5 hits in the 4th to give her a cushion.

Nicholls had retired the first 12 when Smith hit a dribbler down the 1st base line. Medomak's first baseman tried to pick the ball up with her glove and came up empty, then grabbed it with her hand and tagged Smith with an empty glove. Smith went WIDE to avoid the tag (like, half-way to Thomaston wide, past Wemby's wingspan wide, wider than the strike zone, even) and ran past first base without touching the bag. As she doubled back, Medomak tossed to first and she was called safe.

I'm working on getting a good video angle of it, but there's been some question as to the rule, so I reached out to a baseball ump for clarification on what happens when a runner completely misses the base.

So without the benefit of seeing the actual video, it seems that Medomak would have to appeal the play, but the ump I spoke to felt that the act of throwing to first would probably constitute an appeal, pending a look at the actual video, of course.

It was the only Greely batter to reach base, so Nicholls will have to settle for a no-hitter, but...you know. Perfect is always better.

At least Nicholls got the no-hitter, even if it was reported elsewhere as a hit (it wasn't even close to a hit).

This is where I plug a new feature of the website. If you upload the stats of a game, it'll give you a game summary (click one of the numbers in the scoreboard or just go here) with the predicted result, how it compares to the actual result, and the stats of the game.

This will come in very handy during basketball season, I suspect.

Elsewhere

Reagan Partridge hit 2 inside-the-park homers as OOB out-slugged 13-11 in 8 innings...Telstar's Brennan Walker struck out 13 in a shutout of Madison...Oxford Hills' Kyeria Morse struck out 12 and homered in a win over Bangor...Addison DeRoche struck out 18 in a 1-hitter of Biddeford...Maddie Fitzgerald homered and drove in 4 runs as York made short work of Mountain Valley...Waynflete scored 3 runs in the top of the 7th to rally past Sacopee Valley...Brady Chappell's 1-hitter led Fryeburg over York...Bangor's Matt Turcotte struck out 11 in a 1-hitter of Mount Blue...Kyle Soule's 3-run dinger led Greely over Yarmouth...Maranacook put up a 7-run 4th inning and held on to beat Lisbon...Poland scored 5 runs in the top of the 10th to knock out Leavitt...Lake Region's Haley Hamlin struck out 13, but Erskine scored twice on wild pitches in the 7th to advance...Robyn Babbidge homered and hit 2 doubles as Oak Hill mercied Lisbon...Lana Waite had 15 strikeouts in Dirigo's win over Sacopee Valley...#14 Woodland nearly kept their Cinderella run going, falling 11-10 to Machias...Lily Fortin notched her 300th strikeout in NYA's win over Richmond...Lauren Veino set Penobscot Valley's school record with 715Ks.

Cooper made Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in sports.

Perhaps the most well-rounded American prospect since James, Flagg has lived up to the hype–and has softened the blow for Mavericks fans still upset by the unpopular trade of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. A basketball battleground is brewing in the Lone Star State. Over the next two decades, Flagg and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs may be fighting for hoops supremacy.

TIME100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026: Cooper Flagg

Find out why Cooper Flagg is on the list

TimeSean Gregory

With the World Cup kicking off it's always fun to see just how insane FIFA can be.

Imagine thinking LA needs help with marketing.

Yesterday's Game of the Day was the other rained out game, so we'll skip past that and head to girls lacrosse, where TA will host Yarmouth.

TA won the regular season matchup, 12-6 and should be favored here.

Honestly, I'm not sure why the Stax Index is so high here.

The Model's picks for the rest of today's games are after the jump.