After being rained out in back-to-back days, the Cousino Patriots and Lamphere Rams were finally able to link up in a duel between top teams in the Macomb Area Conference Gold on Wednesday, May 7.

And though the Patriots scored first, the Rams got a sixth inning rally to win, 3-1, bringing themselves within a game of the division lead.

Though the game was played in Warren, Lamphere was considered the home team — they were unable to host due to copious standing water on their home infield following heavy rainfall early this week.

It allowed the Patriots to get on the board first in the third inning. They manufactured the run starting with a leadoff single from Collin Finn, who then stole second and then tagged up on a fly ball to right field. A passed ball scored him.

But that’s all Cousino could do against lefty Gavin Abbott. The sophomore mixed his offspeed arsenal with his fastball out of an uncommon arm slot to force the Patriots to uncomfortably roll over several pitches and downright miss, striking out eight batters in 6.1 innings. He allowed just two hits after their one run and largely kept the ball in the infield.

Abbott admitted that the Rams’ weeklong absence — their last game was a 5-3 win over Country Day on Wednesday, April 30 — had him feeling rusty out of the gate, but he clearly settled in.

“I was confident,” Abbott said. “You know, my curveball, first pitch, they’re just taking it. Changeup got them a couple of times and my fastball, I was just feeling good.”

“I think I can get them to chase, you know, swing and miss. I’m really confident.”

The Rams backed him up in the field, not committing any errors, something that has been a problem in previous games.

Ethan Malak finished the game, getting the final two outs to earn a save.

“When Gavin is up there, I just like, I know it’s either a strikeout or a ground ball and we’re good, and just good defense behind him,” said second baseman Cormick Whalen. “He gets a lot of strikeouts. They’re always late on him. He’s a really good pitcher.”

Whalen was part of the Rams’ sixth inning that saw them take their first and last lead of the game. Cousino pitcher Parker Wieczorek walked the first two batters of the inning, then Jaxson Riddle’s single scored one run and Whalen’s well-placed bunt forced an error, scoring another.

Though Lamphere collected just three hits, they also walked five times and stole three bases.

That aggressiveness led to — and fed off of — the Rams’ energy.

“The most important thing is the energy in the dugout, and I think that if we can have that after them scoring runs and still come back, I think that’s the most important thing,” Whalen said.

“(It comes from) all the guys that are playing, but the guys who are on the bench are loud, and that’s really helpful.”

All three Lamphere players that scored reached via walk. A passed ball in the third inning put the Rams in scoring position on their first run, and the aforementioned error cashed in another.

Cousino head coach Kyle Gleason said that self-inflicted wounds added up to contribute to the loss.

“There were just a couple little mistakes today and those were the difference,” Gleason said. “You know, a couple walks, a couple passed balls and, you know, one or two plays we’d like to have back. But, you know, credit to Lamphere, that’s a really good baseball team.”

Walks aside, Wieczorek had a strong outing, allowing only three hits and striking out seven in five-plus innings.

“Parker’s done a really good job for us this year,” Gleason said. “You know, awesome senior coming out, setting the tone for our guys and being a real leader. Again, he’s been that way all year long, and we look forward to seeing what he can do for us in the next month leading up to the tournament.”

The teams are scheduled to play the second game of their set on Thursday, May 8 along with a third game, the date of which is currently to be determined.

Cousino sits at 10-7 overall and 7-3 in the MAC Gold. Lamphere is 10-5 and 4-3 in the Gold, with Marine City (7-4 Gold) and Lake Shore (4-3) also in the race for a league title.

Both teams are confident they can win the race.

“We lost to Roseville which we thought was a bad loss, so we knew we had to bounce back and knew these games would be tough, and especially against the better teams in our league,” Abbott said. “And we bounced back and got the win.”

“The ball’s in our court,” Gleason added. “You know, it’s all on us right now. We can’t leave anything up to other teams. So we know what’s at stake, and we just got to come out and handle our business.”