LEWISTON — Mt. Ararat senior righthander Hunter Lohr’s herky-jerky wind-up has more stops in it than Boston’s Green Line. But against Lewiston on Saturday, it was Lohr’s work from the stretch that kept his outing from going off the rails.

Lohr stranded 11 Lewiston runners while spinning a five-hit shutout and also sparked the Eagles’ offense, reaching base three times and scoring twice in a 6-0 victory at Joseph Deschesne Field.

Lohr struck out five, walked four and hit a batter while going the distance on 105 pitches. He showed grit at the plate, too, going 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and two runs scored to help deliver perhaps the biggest win so far this season for the Eagles (5-2).

“We felt like today we got a glimpse of what we can do the rest of the season,” Lohr said. “We’re looking to take this game and use it as a base to what we’re going to do this season.”

Two Eagle errors, including one by Lohr himself, helped Lewiston (4-3) get at least one runner on base in each inning. But the Blue Devils couldn’t make him pay for a fit of wildness when he loaded the bases with none out in the third (two walks, hit batter) and two out in the fourth (single, two walks). They stranded runners at second and third in the fifth.

“I reached down deep, looked at the guys behind me and said ‘Well, they’re going to have my back, so I might as well do something for them,'” Lohr said. “Coach (Mike) Toomey, our pitching coach, told me to just hit my spots and it worked out for us.”

“That’s Hunter. He’s going to go out and give you everything he’s got. Our fielders know he’s going to throw strikes and be around the strike zone,” Mt. Ararat coach Brett Chase said.

Lohr wiggled out of his self-induced jam in the third with a pop out to short, a fly out to shallow right that the runner at third hesitated tagging up from third on and had to hold, and a pop out to second.

“We’ve lost three games this year because we haven’t had a timely hit,” Lewiston coach Darren Hartley said. “We also made some defensive mistakes that are uncommon for us.”

“There was definitely a big momentum rush (after getting out of the jam in the top of the inning), almost to the point where I had to bring myself back a little bit when I got to the dugout,” Lohr said.

Still buoyed by his escape, Lohr swung at the first pitch of the next inning from Lewiston starter Hunter Landry and hit it over the left fielder’s head for a double. Lohr alertly took third when the throw in from the outfield got away, then scored on Austin Damon’s safety squeeze.

Kyle Secone and Ryan Robertson (two hits) started the fifth with back-to-back doubles to double Mt. Ararat’s lead to 2-0. The Eagles might have tripled it but for third baseman Owen Cox’s fine leaping grab to rob Lohr of a third hit.

“We talked to the guys about their approach at the plate,” Chase said. “Early in the game, it wasn’t real good. (Landry) did a really good job of keeping us off-balance, so we talked to them about working the baseball back up through the middle, not getting too anxious and putting a good swing on the ball.”

“We’ve been trying to preach to these guys to keep the game simple. We’re just trying to fight through like everyone else with the weather and everything and we’re just trying to keep it simple,” Chase said.

Lohr escaped his second bases-loaded jam in the fourth by getting Landry to fly out to right for the final out, then stranded two more runners in the fifth by getting Sam Laroche on a fly out to left. Lewiston helped him recover from his own throwing error in the sixth by getting doubled-up at second base on a line out to shortstop.

The Eagles sent 10 men to the plate in the seventh against relievers Josh Murphy and Cooper Millett to tack four runs onto their lead. Damon belted a two-run double and Lohr and Brady Mitchell had RBI singles.

Lohr issued a one-out single by Jack LeBlond (two hits) in the seventh before closing it out with a strikeout and ground out to second.

Copy the Story Link