GRAY – Most of the offense for the Cole Farms American Legion baseball team came in the fourth inning Saturday.

In the first game the production wasn’t enough but in the afternoon’s second game, it was plenty.

Cole Farms scored seven runs in that fourth to help earn a split with Gayton Post. After losing the first match 6-3, Cole Farms took the second game 9-4.

“The momentum just swung,” said Gayton coach Jay Levasseur. “We had a couple of tough plays at the start of the inning to get us in trouble. I think (Ryan) O’Hara pitched a nice game. He had some tough calls that were made, and he worked through them.”

Cole Farms (3-5) had 12 hits between the two games, four of which came in that seven-run fourth. Gayton’s 2-1 lead quickly evaporated as Cole Farms sent 11 batters to the plate and took advantage of four Gayton errors.

“That’s what we want to do,” said Cole Farms coach Aaron Talon. “We want to force them to make mistakes. We were able to do that in that fourth inning and get a big inning out of it.”

With one out, a walk and an error started the trouble. A Josh Foster bunt single loaded the bases. After an error on a Jordan Yanni grounder to third tied the game, Steve Melville, Jon Aceto and Shane Corcoran followed with two-run singles to build an 8-2 lead.

Gayton scored a pair in the fifth on an error and a Jared Jalbert fielder’s choice. They then stranded two runners in the sixth.

“The momentum changed so much, we couldn’t recover from it,” said Levasseur.

Though Gayton had 11 hits in the first game, it managed just three against Aceto in the second game.

“We didn’t get the timely hits, the two out hits.” said Levasseur.

Aceto walked three batters and gave up a triple and single to Tyler Turgeon and a double to John Emerson.

“He’s not overpowering,” said Talon. “He hits his spots. He mixes it up very well. He’s been successful doing that the past couple of years now.”

The offense was much more plentiful for Gayton in the first game. Shawn Sabine had four hits and three RBIs while Tyler Turgeon had two hits and three RBIs.

Gayton (2-5) jumped out to an early two-run lead and rode the arm of Dustin Longchamps to get the win.

Gayton lost starting catcher Ben Mendelson in the first inning with a possible broken finger. Emerson replaced him and did a fine job behind the plate for both games. Starting third baseman Jack Lavoie suffered a hand injury in the second game.

“That first game was huge for us,” said Levasseur. “We needed a win.”

Sabine’s two-run triple made it 2-0 in the first inning. Cole Farms scored a run on a fielder’s choice on Aceto’s groundout.

A Turgeon double in the third padded the lead. Then in the fourth, Sabine singled in a run off reliever Erik Morrison. Turgon followed with a two-run single for a 6-1 advantage.

Cole Farms threatened in the fourth with three of its five hits. Yanni tripled home a run and then scored on a wild pitch, but Longchamps worked his way out of the inning with a pair of pop ups. Yanni left the second game with a hamstring injury.

“He’s 2-0,” said Levasseur, whose team meets Cole Famrs again Tuesday. “He’s got our two wins. He’s got a big heart. He did a great job. He finished under 100 pitches. He pitched a complete and had a complete game in the other game he won.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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