PARIS — Oxford Hills coasted to a 7-0 KVAC victory over Lewiston on Monday afternoon, but it didn’t feel like a breeze unless you were counting the one wafting across Tim Bryant Memorial Field that made spectators scramble for their winter jackets.
The Vikings never tattooed the baseball. In fact, the Blue Devils wound up with eight hits compared to the hosts’ seven, and Oxford Hills’ first four base knocks never left the infield.
Those pesky walks, errors, hit batsmen and throws that are a half-step too late to first base add up in a hurry, though.
“We weren’t stringing hits together,” Lewiston coach Will Emerson said. “A couple of mistakes really hurt us, and that’s been the story so far.”
Sophomore Troy Johnson and senior Andrew Fleming combined on the shutout, giving Oxford Hills its second consecutive win after an opening loss at Bangor while dropping Lewiston to 0-3.
Lewiston logged a hit in every inning except the fourth and loaded the bases in the seventh on singles by Brady Cusson, Corey Harvey and Hunter Landry. Fleming, the University of Maine-bound basketball star in his first varsity season on the diamond, coaxed Evan Cox into a game-ending grounder to Jake Spinhirn at shortstop.
It capped an error-free day for Oxford Hills. Lewiston made four miscues, all in the first four innings, when the Vikings put up their seven runs.
“I think we’re playing good baseball right now,” said senior designated hitter Blake Slicer, who crossed the plate twice. “We’re not making as many errors. The first game we had five or six, and we’ve only had one since then. That helps a lot.”
Bailey West and Jake Beauchesne had two hits apiece for Oxford Hills. Beauchesne drove in a pair, on a bases-loaded walk in the second inning and a single in the fourth.
Two errors and two infield singles led to Slicer’s two-out run in the first against Lewiston starter Austin Wing.
Brayden Bean, Janek Luksza and Hunter LaBossiere drew consecutive walks without seeing a single strike to fire up the second frame. Wing nearly escaped thanks to Cox’s catch of a Spinhirn line drive, followed by his own conversion of a comebacker into a force play at the plate.
Slicer beat out a hit, however, with LaBossiere’s aggressive base running on the back end allowing a second run to score. Wing plunked Matt Smith and issued the free pass to Beauchesne to make it 4-0.
“We left a lot of guys on base, but it was one of those days, I think,” Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer said. “We just didn’t square the ball up real well. Wing had a little trouble with his command that inning, so we were seeing a lot of pitches and got a couple of bleeders.”
West’s leadoff single, Slicer’s walk and an errant pickoff attempt opened the floodgates in the fourth. Beauchesne and Bean sandwiched run-producing singles around another Lewiston error.
“That’s an example of how we’ve got to play a clean seven innings, and right now we’re not doing that. Mistakes here, here and here add up to five, six and seven runs,” Emerson said. “All these losses have felt like we’ve been in positions to win, even Bangor. We’ve got to capitalize on mistakes. Today they capitalized on ours.”
Johnson was economical in his first varsity start. He stranded two in the first inning and left another runner at third base in the second. Luksza, Bean and Curtis turned a double play to end the third.
After a perfect fourth, Johnson benefited from Beauchesne’s beginning of a 9-4-6-5 putout before striking out Landry looking to punctuate his stint.
“My fastball was good. My off-speed was decent,” Johnson said. “I was trying to get up in the count. I wanted to go deep in the game. I didn’t want to come out early, so I wanted to get first-pitch strikes every time.”
Cusson and Wing each collected two hits for Lewiston. Dalton Wing spun two innings of one-hit relief.
Oxford Hills’ hurlers combined for only three strikeouts but issued only two free passes — a walk and a hit batsman, each by Johnson.
“We got out of trouble quite a few times. The first few innings they had guys in scoring position and I thought this was going be a game,” Shane Slicer said. “We don’t have a commanding force on the mound, but if we do throw strikes it makes all the difference this time of year.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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