PORTLAND — A wounded animal is always more dangerous.

That apparently also applies to the Sea Dogs.

Justin Headley had three doubles, scored three times and knocked in a pair of runs as injury-depleted Portland pounded the Reading Phillies 7-1 at Hadlock Field Monday night.

Headley’s doubles came against three different Reading pitchers.

“I’ve been getting hits, but I haven’t felt that good at the plate,” said Headley, who is hitting .350 with a team-leading 14 RBI after a 3-for-5 night. “It was just one of those nights where I knew I was going to hit the ball hard.”

Trace Coquillette had two hits, including his first home run, and three RBI and Jeremy Owens hit a solo shot for the Sea Dogs, who had only one position player on the bench.

Owens’ first home run, a drive into the net above the left-field wall, broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fourth inning.

In the fifth, Coquillette’s two-out double scored Headley to make it 3-1.

With Portland comfortably ahead 6-1 in the home half of the seventh inning, Coquillette led off with a blast over the left-field wall.

“I was putting too much pressure on myself,” said Coquillette, who was hitting just .150 coming into the game. “I’ve had a lot of success in this league and thought I’d have to duplicate it. Now, I said I’m just going to sit back and relax and let it come naturally.”

Coquellette hit .332 for Harrisburg in 1998 and was in the big leagues a year later with Montreal.

“(Coquillette’s) got some serious juice in his bat,” said Portland manager Ron Johnson. “The ball sounds a little bit different coming off his bat. He killed that ball.”

Reading’s bats were anything but silent.

The Phillies had 13 hits against three different pitchers, but somehow managed to score only once.

Brian Hitchcox had three of those hits and scored Reading’s lone run against Portland starter Jorge De La Rosa in the top of the third inning.

Hitchcox doubled, moved to third on a fly out and scored on Jorge Padilla’s infield hit.

The Phillies stranded 11 and hit into three double plays.

“We had some good performances offensively,” said Reading manager Greg Legg. “They got the key hits.”

De La Rosa (2-2) gave up eight hits, walked four and struck out three in five innings.

Eric Glaser and Felix Villegas each pitched two innings of scoreless relief.

The Sea Dogs scored once in the bottom of the first inning against Reading starter Mike Wilson and lost a chance for more.

Kevin Youkilis was hit by a pitch, but was thrown out at the plate while trying to score from first on Headley’s double.

Wilson, who struggled to find his command before leaving after three innings with a stiff shoulder, walked Kelly Shoppach and Justin Sherrod to load the bases before he hit Coquillette with a pitch to force in a run.

Shoppach, who arrived earlier in the day from Florida, later picked up his first Double-A hit and RBI with a double during a three-run Portland sixth.

“Shop had a real nice first game, ” said Johnson. “He threw the ball well and did a nice job with De La Rosa. It’s good to see that he’s healthy.”

The Red Sox acquired minor league veteran Kevin Haverbusch from Pittsburgh and assigned him to Portland earlier Monday. Haverbusch, who spent parts of the last four seasons in the Eastern League with Altoona, would have been the designated hitter last night, but the airlines lost his equipment. He was the only non-pitcher on the Sea Dogs’ bench.

“We were low on numbers,” said Johnson, “so things worked out really nicely for us.”

Sea Dogs notes: Youkilis was hit by a pitch twice, bringing his season total to eight. He has also reached base in all 16 games….Glaser will make a spot start Thursday night due to Sunday’s doubleheader….Tim Kester (0-1, 6.75 ERA) opposes Reading’s Bud Smith (0-0, 9.00) tonight at 6 p.m. Smith, a former major leaguer, was the last National Leaguer to hurl a no-hitter (for St. Louis against San Diego on Sept. 3, 2001) until Kevin Millwood did it on Sunday.

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