LEWISTON — Mt. Ararat was looking to break through in the first inning of a scoreless KVAC baseball game Thursday.
Eagles leadoff hitter JD Dionne reached on a leadoff walk against Oxford Hills hurler Colton Carson, and then Mt. Ararat’s Austin Damon dropped a single into right field. Dionne stumbled a bit near the second base bag, but quickly sprinted toward third.
That small stumble made a huge difference. Oxford Hills right fielder Will Dieterich threw a perfect one-hop strike to third baseman Caden Truman to retire a sliding Dionne.
In a game that turned out to be a 19-0 Oxford Hills victory on the turf at Lewiston High School, the early play by the Dieterich turned out to be the kick-start Oxford Hills needed to improve to 3-0 on the season, while Mt. Ararat fell to 3-1.
“It was a real big play, huge momentum. Their guy stumbled, and Will knew it. It was a great throw,” Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer said.
“When we have Colton out there, it is nice to keep him out there for as long as we can, so to get that early out was big,” Dieterich said. “We went off after that. I’m not sure if that throw had anything to do with it, but I just wanted to try and do what I could to help us today.”
Carson closed the first inning with the first of his nine strikeouts, and his hitters gave him plenty of offense from there.
After Damon retired the Vikings in order in the first, Oxford Hills scored eight second-inning runs on seven hits, a walk and a hit batter.
“The game snowballed on us, and we have some inexperience that showed,” said Mt. Ararat coach Brett Chase. “Oxford Hills is too good to give them too many opportunities, five or six outs an inning. They’re just too good.”
The inning started with a slicing double just inside the left-field line by Ashton Kennison. Truman singled and Dieterich reached on an error, and Kennison scored the game’s first run. Wyatt Williamson drove in a pair with a single, and infield singles by Cam Slicer and Rod Bean upped the lead to 5-0. Dieterich singled in a run later in the frame, and Damon walked his final hitter, Williamson, with the bases loaded.
“Anytime you can get a lead is big, but to get eight was amazing. Everyone did their job and kept moving around the bases,” Dieterich said.
Brady Mitchell-Damms singled for Mt. Ararat in the second, but that the last was hit against Carson.
“Colton struggled in the first, walked the first guy and threw 20 pitches,” Shane Slicer said. “Colton had five or six days rest, and I felt that we had to have this game with the way the weather is set up. We jumped on a pretty good pitcher, they sat on a fastball and it helped us. The balls were falling in and it was really rolling for us today.”
After bringing 14 hitters to the plate in the second, Oxford Hills kept the bats going in the third, adding six more runs for a 14-0 lead as Truman drove in a pair with a single, and Janek Luksza, Dieterich and Jonny Pruett each added an RBI.
Oxford Hills finished the scoring with a run in the fourth (RBI single by Kennison) and four more runs in the fifth, as pinch hitters Isaiah Oufiero and Ty LeBlond each drove in a run.
Bean and Kennison paced the 16-hit Vikings attack with three hits each, while Truman, Cam Slicer and Dieterich had two apiece.
Carson struck out the final five Mt. Ararat hitters, retiring eight straight Eagles to finish with a two-hit shutout.
“We needed that shut-down guy, and Colton was that guy today,” Dieterich said.
Damon, Ben Freeman and Trey Booty pitched for Mt. Ararat, combining for two strikeouts and seven walks.
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