The Gray-New Gloucester Patriots rode a wave of early Lake Region pitching problems to a six-run first inning Monday afternoon, and though Lake Region would eventually get on the board, it would be much too little, much too late. G-NG’s Thomas Wood performed most consistently at the plate for his team, nabbing a trio of singles as they cruised to an 11-1 victory in five.

“The first thing I told the kids was, defensively I thought we did very well,” said G-NG head coach Brad Smith.

“The stat that we look at most is on-base percentage. It doesn’t matter how we get on base, because baserunners score runs. Our first three runs scored without virtue of a run. If you sense that the pitcher is struggling, the worst thing that can happen is to let him off the hook.”

The Lakers began Monday’s bout looking especially off. A pair of 5-3 groundouts bookended their five-batter first inning, and while Jordan Williams grabbed a single in the midst of the action, he never made it more than 90 feet.

In their ups, the Patriots took immediate advantage of Lake Region’s troubles. Tyler St. Pierre, at the top of the order, knocked a ball toward second and might’ve gotten caught out 4-3, but Laker Nick Ball overshot the throw to Jordan Williams on first, and St. Pierre landed safely on the bag.

Lake Region starting pitcher Nate Smith kept the squad composed, striking out his next G-NG opponent, Evan Harmer, but then gave up Wood’s first single – which brought home St. Pierre – and followed that up by walking JT Magno. Smith quickly reclaimed his concentration again to strike out Josiah Rottari, but then walked three more consecutive Patriots.

It wasn’t Smith’s day, and Lakers head coach Randy Heath knew as much. Smith’s last batch of BBs bumped the score forward to 4-0, G-NG, so Heath swapped him to first and gave Williams the ball.

Williams walked his first opponent, Patriot Tanner Mann, and then gave up a two-RBI, left-field blast to St. Pierre. Harmer knocked a grounder through in the infield, but Ball snatched it up and caught St. Pierre in the force play at second to finally extricate Lake Region from the damaging inning.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t light their own fire in the top of the second, going one-two-three at the plate.

“We spend a lot of time on pitch counts and situations,” said Smith. “So our guys get up there with the idea that there are certain counts, I’ll give ’em the green light. Other times, like when the pitcher’s walked the previous batter, and all of a sudden he’s thrown two more balls…batter’s not going to be up there swinging…You can have the best defense on the field, but one thing you can defend against is walks.”

Of course, Smith acknowledged, a pitcher can grow wise to such a strategy – but that’s just going to force him to throw strikes.

Williams settled in on the mound on his next go-round, giving up just one run – Wood got on base with another single, and eventually crossed home thanks to Zack Mann – but the game was already receding from the Lakers’ grasp.

G-NG added lone runs in the third and fourth. Lake Region showed the first signs of revival in the fourth, when Williams smashed a standing double down the left-field line and arrived home two batters later on a Damon Knight single drive to center. But the Lakers’ pitching faltered again in the fifth, opening with a pair of walks and a balk to set the score at 10-1.

With Magno on third, G-NG’s Cam Blais, pinch-hitting for Rottari, needed only get the ball safely in play to conclude the game via the run rule, which he did. Magno crossed home to end the action at 11-1.

St. Pierre gets the W on the mound, while Smith takes the loss.

The victory resembled G-NG’s first win of 2015, a 13-5 crushing of Waynflete, who also suffered through pitching trials and gave up a bevy of unearned runs. So while the Patriots are sitting pretty at 2-0 thus far, they’ve yet to face an adversary at the top of their game.

“We scored three runs without getting a hit,” said Smith. “That’s not going to happen every day. We face better pitching, we might not be as fortunate.”

G-NG hosted Poland (1-3) on Wednesday the 29th, after the Lake Region Weekly’s print deadline, and travel to Wells on Friday the 1st.

“I tell the guys the same thing, no matter what happens: ‘You have until the sun goes down to enjoy it, and then we’ve got to focus on [the next game],” said Smith, who also acknowledged that, naturally, his boys have plenty of work to do.

“We’ve got a couple guys who need to be more aggressive at the plate; we’ve got some young kids – they get a little intimidated, when you bring a freshman up for the first time and he’s facing varsity pitching.

“There’s always something – and I think the kids need to leave with the idea that there’s always something.”

Lake Region dropped their opener as well – making them now 0-2 – but they lost that battle by a much slimmer margin, just 5-4 against Wells. They welcomed No. 1 Greely (2-0) on Wednesday and visit Kennebunk on Friday.

Gray-New Gloucester’s Devon Plummer slides into home as Lake Region catcher Evan Sanborn awaits a late throw.Patriot Thomas Wood leads off first as Lake Region baseman Nate Smith follows the pitch.The Lakers’ Jordan Williams crosses the plate in the fourth. Williams belted a standing double to get in scoring position, then arrived home again on a Damon Knight single.Lake Region baseman Nick Ball catches G-NG’s John Henry Villanueva stealing second late in the game.G-NG’s Tyler St. Pierre hurls a pitch toward home in the Patriots’ 11-1 win over visiting Lake Region on Monday.

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