GRAY – Ryan Turgeon had heard that the Gray-New Gloucester offense has been struggling to find its way this young season. But the St. Dom’s pitcher wasn’t buying any of it.

Turgeon worked his way out of several jams as undermanned St. Dominic Regional High School edged Gray-New Gloucester Monday in a weird Western Maine Conference tilt.

Jon Rutt scored on an error in the top of the sixth to break a 2-2 tie in a game that saw four unearned runs, 10 errors, and several mental lapses in the field and on the base paths. Turgeon then went on to strand the tying and go-ahead runs in the bottom of the sixth to help the Saints to a 3-2 victory.

“I knew they’d had two 1-0 games, but I’ve played this team before in Legion and I knew they hit really well,” Turgeon said. “I was hoping we could get the bats going today, but with Tyler (Turgeon) and Nic (Albert) gone, I wasn’t really expecting much.”

The Saints were indeed playing without two of their key hitters, who are both away on a senior mission in Mississippi. They managed to collect seven hits off G-NG’s Lou Bernardini (seven innings, seven hits, one earned run, five Ks, six walks) but weren’t able to break through (12 left on base) most of the day.

“Everybody contributed. We had some young kids out there and they played solid in the field,” said St. Dom’s coach Allan Turgeon.

The Saints (2-0) got on the board first on Jack Lavoie’s RBI single that scored Rutt in the third inning. They doubled their lead in the fifth when Ian Pullen cracked a triple over the head of the right fielder to score Josh Dwinal.

The Patriots (0-3), who were no-hit in their first game and had yet to score a run this season going into the game, finally got on the board in the fifth.

Three errors at shortstop allowed Devin Gill and Jason Warren to score the tying runs.

St. Dom’s got the lead back for good when Rutt reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second, then moved to third when shortstop Jesse Huff made a terrific diving stop on Josh Dwinal’s infield single. Berardini then induced a grounder to second by Pullen that should have ended the inning, but Rutt scored when the second baseman bobbled the ball. Huff made another nice play to deny the Saints an insurance run, cutting off the throw from right field on Turgeon’s single and nailing Dwinal at the plate.

The Patriots threatened to tie it again in the sixth. With runners at first and second and one out, Turgeon (seven inning, two unearned runs, three hits, seven Ks, three walks) struck out Huff looking. His pitch in the dirt on a 2-2 count on the next batter, Josh Bartlett, moved both runners up into scoring position, but Turgeon caught Bartlett swinging at the 3-2 pitch to end the threat.

“That was definitely the toughest pitch of my outing,” said Turgeon, who was helped out by a couple of key plays in the outfield by Rutt and Jake Albert. “I tried to go to a couple of change ups and they bounced in, so then I just went back to the fastball on the outside corner and he swung at it.”

“That’s been our story. We’ve left guys on base and you can’t do that,” said G-NG coach Aaron Talon, whose team left six on Monday. “Last year we got those key hits. We haven’t gotten them yet this year, but they’re going to come.”