LEWISTON — When Kyle Bourget was told Friday that he was going to get the start to open the Zone 3 Legion baseball tournament, he couldn’t help but be a little nervous.

The Pastime Club hurler had struggled in his outing Thursday. After getting the news Friday, he had nearly two days to dwell on it prior to Sunday’s start.

“I was worried about coming in (Sunday) because my arm wasn’t feeling well,” Bourget said. “I just went home and iced it (after Thursday’s game) and came in (Sunday) and started throwing and stretched a little, and I threw well.”

Bourget’s arm showed little effects Sunday, as he no-hit Locke Mills in a 10-0  tournament quarterfinal win. He struck out eight and walked only one in the eight-inning outing.

“I came in today and my arm felt great,” said Bourget, who threw just two innings and struggled in the regular season finale Thursday. “I felt like I could go three more.”

Bourget was also pitching with a heavy heart. A friend of the pitcher’s brother Cameron, Mitchell Breton-Tuplin, was killed in an ATV accident last week and his wake was Sunday evening. Bourget knew the boy well and pitched with him in mind Sunday, putting initials on his glove and on his hat. Breton-Tuplin loved baseball and Bourget wanted to honor his friend with his performance.

Pastime (14-5) advances to Monday’s semifinal round. Because Highland Green stunned second-seeded Brunswick, third-seeded Pastime will host the semifinal. But their home field at Lewiston High School begins renovations Monday, so Pastime will play its game at Auburn Suburban at 5:30 p.m., instead.

Gage Cote led Pastime with two hits and three RBIs Sunday. Matt Poulin and Brady Cusson had the only other hits.

Though Locke Mills (7-12)  got solid outings from Gavin Arsenault and Kaine Hutchins, eight errors proved costly and allowed Pastime to build a lead without the aid of a base hit.

“They didn’t get their first hit until the sixth inning,” Locke Mills coach Ryan Palmer said. “At one point, it was 6-0 and all six were unanswered. It’s wasn’t Gavin’s fault early on. He threw four innings on Thursday. So we had to really watch him. Kaine came in and threw well too.”

Locke Mills only had three baserunners the whole game, on two walks and an error. Two of those runners were wiped out on subsequent double plays and the other reached third and was stranded.

“I was just trying go go out there and hit my spots and change speeds up and keep them off balance,” Bourget said. “I made my pitches and a lot of ground balls and stuff, my defense played a great game. We had two double plays. I couldn’t ask for better defense today.”

Pastime got three runs in the first inning with the help of three Locke Mills errors and three walks. Cote, who reached on an error, scored the first run when Carter Chabot hit a dribbler down the first base line. It was thrown away. Then an error on a Matt Poulin grounder plated two more runs for the early lead.

“We got better but in a playoff game, you can’t allow your pitcher to throw 45 pitches in the first inning and expect to win,” Palmer said.

Pastime made it 4-o in the fourth when Poulin scored on an error off an Austin Wing bunt. Then in the fifth, Ryan Riordan scored while Alex Small was caught in a run-down between first and second.

The lead ballooned to 8-0 in the sixth when Cote tripled in a pair. He then scored on an error off a Riordan grounder. In the eighth, Cote singled in a run and later scored on another error to end the game because of the 10-run rule.

Bourget gave Locke Mills little chance to rally. He had great command the entire game and only got stronger as the game wore on.

“For him to go out there and limit their amount of hits, he kept it in the zone and hit his spots,” Pastime coach Dave Jordan said. “He had very good accuracy. We had him at 99 pitches. It was great economical work on his part. I think we did a great defensive job. That’s a really good hitting team. No way did I expect us to limit their hits and runs the way we did.”

Though Pastime was effective being aggressive on the bases and forcing or taking advantage of mistakes, Locke Mills couldn’t get anything like that going their way.

“We had a few hard hit balls that found them,” Palmer said. “They played a great game. We’ve been a team that once things get going for us, we play better. We were just waiting for that one hit to get us going and today wasn’t the day.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link