LISBON — Randy Ridley sensed his young team’s nerves during batting practice. With freshmen throughout his lineup, along with only two players who played key roles in Lisbon High School baseball’s last playoff win two seasons ago, Ridley tried to keep it loose.

It helped that junior hurler Kyle Bourget was firing darts, with his pitching allowing the Greyhounds to ease through their nerves in a Western Maine Class C preliminary 7-3 win over 12th-seeded Madison (5-12) on Tuesday at Doughty Diamond.

Fifth-seeded Lisbon heads to undefeated and fourth-ranked Sacopee Valley on Thursday for a Western C quarterfinal sporting an 11-6 record.

Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth after the Bulldogs scored on a throwing error, Ridley gathered his team, mostly to refocus his Greyhounds.

“I could sense the tightness, as we haven’t been in these type of pressure-packed games,” said the coach. “Kyle was doing well. We capitalized on a couple of their mistakes, something you have to do in a playoff game.”

In the bottom of fourth, a pair of errors opened the door for Lisbon, with Brett Gravel scoring the go-ahead run with two outs on a Madison miscue. A single by Ryley Austin was followed by a clutch two-run single by RJ Sargent for a 4-1 Greyhounds lead.

“It was really exciting to get that hit,” said Sargent, who was 1-for-3. “This is the first time for me playing baseball of getting past the first round. We really came together as a team today after a rocky start, and everyone was pumped all the way through. I had nerves. Everyone had some nerves. It was a playoff game.”

“The previous two swings he was trying too hard. I told him to relax, and that swing was one of the best ones that he has had in a while,” said Ridley of Sargent’s hit. “It got us two runs. It was a big play. With a young team, you don’t know how they are going to do if they don’t respond. We did exactly what we were supposed to do. They scored one, we scored three.”

Bourget carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He struck out the side in the second, and picked up four consecutive punchouts over the fourth and fifth frames.

“Kyle threw very well, very good command of his pitches,” said Ridley. “He fought through some of our errors, and just pitched a great game.”

Madison got to Bourget in the sixth. With one out, consecutive singles by Cody Soucier and Chase Malloy put two runners on the corners. Malloy stole second, and one out later Ryan Emery blooped a two-run single just inside the right-field line to get the Bulldogs to 4-3.

Again Lisbon responded. Noah Francis singled, and Austin (2-for-4, two runs scored, stolen base) dropped a bunt for a base hit. Bourget, who was 3-for-3 against Madison pitcher Malloy, was intentionally walked to load the bases. Tucker Brannon singled to drive in a run, and an interference call on Madison allowed Austin to score. Joe Philbrick (2-for-3, double, two RBIs) lifted a sacrifice fly for a 7-3 Lisbon lead.

“When it got to 4-3, we realized that we had to step up our game,” said Sargent. “Up 7-3 in the seventh, we were able to relax and just finish it out.”

Malloy went the distance for Madison. He threw 117 pitches, struck out four, walked two and permitted 11 hits. Only two of the seven runs he allowed were earned.

“He did a good job, and kept us off-balance,” said Ridley of Malloy, who was helped by center-fielder Derek LeBlanc, who tracked down two hard-hit Lisbon fly balls that appeared headed for extra bases.

Bourget struck out 11, walked five, allowed four hits and threw 114 pitches in his complete-game effort. Tyler Halls added a single and stole a base for Lisbon.

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