The tall, fire-balling righthander fanned seven batters and never allowed a ball to leave the infield over three innings of work as Dirigo held off Winthrop for a 6-4 baseball victory.

Holmes (7-1) used 44 pitches over the first three innings and left with a 5-0 lead. He struck out the side in the first and yielded just a grounder to short and a pop out to second in pitching to the minimum number of batters in three frames.

“That’s probably the best he’s thrown this year,” Dirigo coach Ryan Palmer said. “He’s a team player. He had a perfect game today when he left. We did what we wanted to do, pitch him three innings and save him for St. Dom’s on Monday.”

The Cougars (11-1) touched Winthrop starter Connor Doyle (1-1) for single runs in the first two innings before plating three unearned runs in the third.

Holmes began the inning by reaching after Winthrop left fielder Dakota Carter dropped a routine fly ball. A Carter drop of a Holmes drive in the first had already led to an unearned tally. Cody St. Germain followed with a liner in the hole to score Holmes. Two batters later, Tyler Frost brought a run home with a sacrifice fly to center and the Cougars were up 4-0. Brett Whittemore tacked on another run with a successful safety squeeze.

The Cougars weren’t real efficient with their bats, but did everything else to generate offense. They had two sacrifice bunts and were 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts.

“This is really what this team does,” Palmer said. “We utilize our team speed. We have to keep hitting. Our pitching’s been stellar and our defense has been great. You don’t need all three to win day in and day out.”

It took a while before the Ramblers (6-4) got their offense going. Freshman third baseman Mario Meucci tripled to deep center off reliever St. Germain in the bottom of the fifth and crossed home on a ground out by Matt Sekerak.

The Ramblers made things interesting in the sixth. Trailing 6-1, pinch hitter Garrett Settle singled to right. With one out, St. Germain walked Drew Stratton before hitting Tyler Reeve in the back. He then walked cleanup hitter Tyler Foster to bring the tying run to the plate.

Out of the dugout came Palmer, who brought Kaine Hutchins in to face Ben Allen. The strategy paid off as Allen sent a missile toward left that was snared by Holmes at third base. Holmes then outraced Stratton to the bag to complete the unassisted twin killing on a bang-bang play.

“It was a close play,” said Holmes. “I couldn’t tell (if I got him), but I like how it turned out.”

Winthrop touched Hutchins for a pair of runs in the seventh before the righthander got Stratton to fly out to left with a man on for his second save of the season.

“We need to make some of those plays,” said Fortin of the costly errors early in the game. “If we make those plays, it’s a one or two run game at that point.”

Fortin would also like to see his young team play with more confidence.

“They have a swagger when they get off the bus,” said Winthrop coach Marc Fortin of the Cougars. “We need to get that swagger. We’ve got to start thinking we can win these games from the start.”

dst.hilaire@sunjournal.com

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