LEWISTON – It seemed so simple. With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, after a lengthy rain delay, Andy Valley coach Rick Schrepper brought Jay’s Josh Armandi to the mound with a four-run lead to close out a game against Gayton Post.

Armandi retired four consecutive batters – three via strikeout – and was ahead of Shawn Sabine when things started to go awry.

Gayton rallied for three runs in the seventh and had the go-ahead runner on second base before Armandi, armed with a newer, drier ball, struck out the final batter on the 10th pitch of the at-bat and allowed Andy Valley to squeeze by Gayton 7-6 in American Legion baseball action at Franklin Pasture.

“I was a little tired there at the end,” said Armandi, who pitched a complete-game two-hitter on Monday in the Class C state title game, which Jay lost 2-0 to George Stevens. “It was wet, it was getting dark, and I guess I was just trying to hurry up too much. By the end, I was just pitching it in there and I figured we’d get the out somehow.”

Armandi also scored the winning run for Andy Valley in the fourth inning, during which they sent 11 batters to the plate and scored all seven of their runs. Armandi’s run came after he was intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs and four runs already home.

“It really was a no-brainer,” said Gayton coach John Hessler. “I know what he’s capable of, and I didn’t want it to be him that beat us.”

Enter starting pitcher Ryan Ouellette, who started the inning getting hit by a pitch. On his second trip to the plate, Ouellette sent the ball high and deep to center field, well over the fielder’s head. All three runners scored, and Ouellette lumbered into third with a stand-up triple.

“It took a while to get back into a rhythm,” said Ouellette, who hadn’t played since the end of last summer. “I just didn’t want Josh (Armandi) to get on and then not get a hit after him. That happened too much to him at Jay this year.”

It looked as though Andy Valley would cruise to a win, but Gayton started chipping away after rain briefly halted the game.

“To their credit, they never gave up,” said Hessler of his team. “Still, those errors in the field looked a lot worse when we lost by just one run.”

Despite a few nice catches in the outfield, Gayton committed four costly errors that led to four unearned runs. The team comprised of Lewiston and St. Dom’s products clawed back with two runs after the first rain delay and three more after the second before falling to Armandi and Andy Valley.

Mike LeClair led Gayton with two hits in two official at-bats. He also was hit by a pitch twice.

Jamie Brewer tagged two hits for Andy Valley, including a triple in the third inning. Ouellette led all hitters with three RBIs.

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