FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue pitcher Colton Lawrence was in mid-season form Monday afternoon at Hippach Field, throwing a three-hit, 11-strikeout 11-1 win over Skowhegan in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A baseball game.
Featuring his fastball with limited breaking pitches mixed in, Lawrence dominated a young Skowhegan (0-2) team, while the Cougars (2-1) pounded out 12 hits to insure the win.
“The plan was to throw a lot of fastballs, today,” Lawrence said. “My curve ball was working too, but we stuck with the fastball most of the time.”
Mt. Blue scored in every inning but the first, notching the mercy-rule win. Ethan Andrews drilled a two RBI ground ball to right through a drawn in infield to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Andrews stole second base, moved to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on a wild pitch to give Lawrence all the runs he would need.
“We needed to make a statement, we played aggressive and hit the ball,” Lawrence said.
Skowhegan scored its only run in the third without a hit. Lawrence hit Mike Berry to open the inning and appeared to have the game under control when he racked up back-to-back strikeouts, but a pair of infield errors allowed the unearned run to cross the plate cutting the Cougars margin to 3-1.
Mt. Blue recovered in the bottom of the third, collecting a pair of infield base hits along with a Skowhegan throwing error to take a 5-1 lead.
“We killed ourselves,” Skowhegan coach Rick York said. “We are a young team that is still growing. We will make some adjustments that will get us back in the game.”
Mt. Blue nearly ended the game in the fifth inning when the Cougars knocked out four singles to score four runs, taking a 10-1 lead, while sending eight batters to the plate. Anthony Franchetti, Ty Nichols, Ryan Pratt and Jake Davenport had singles for Mt. Blue in the inning.
“In our first, two games we didn’t hit the ball very well,” Pratt, who had three hits, said. “We took a lot of batting practice and hit the ball harder, today.”
Nate Morris took the loss for Skowhegan, working three innings. Kam Doucette came on in the fourth inning to finish out the game in relief.
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