AUBURN – When talking football, one yard doesn’t sound like much. On Monday night, Nick Lawler came within a touchdown dive of tying the game with a home run, but instead, like New Auburn’s comeback bid against Bessey Motors, fell just just short.

Bessey outfielder Joe Baker cradled Lawler’s blast two steps short of the left field fence with two runners on in the bottom of the sixth inning to end Post 153’s rally and lead his team to a 7-4 win at Pettengil Park.

“Last time we played these guys we had to struggle back after being down 6-0, and we did it,” said Bessey Motors coach Joe Oufiero. “This time we wanted to be sure to get out to an early lead, and we did that.”

After playing the first inning scoreless, Bessey erupted for all seven of its runs in the top of the second, sending 11 batters to the plate and using five hits and two New Auburn errors to take a commanding lead.

“He was pitching strikes,” said Oufiero of New Auburn starter Greg Hird. “The guys went up there looking for their pitches, he gave them to us and we hit them.”

Bessey starter Andrew Stacy led off the inning with a double to right field, and Brent Grenier followed with a fly ball to right field that the fielder dropped. Mike Stacy singled Andrew Stacy home, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch that scored Grenier and came home on a Kyle Keniston single. Cody Wall, Keniston, Garrett Olson and Jeff Austin also scored in the inning.

“We had five consecutive first-and-third situations with no outs,” said New Auburn coach Brian Flynn. “To rebound from that alone took enough. That was just incredible.”

After replacing Hird in the second, New Auburn pitcher David Lutz allowed just two earned runs in five-plus innings, facing 20 batters and allowing two hits. The damage was already done.

“We did well to rebound after that inning,” said Flynn. “We beat them in the final five innings, but in the end that’s not what matters. Numerically, this meant nothing, but it would have been nice to end the season with a winning record.”

Post 153 struck for one run in the third and three more in the sixth thanks to a pair of singles from Lutz and Craig Cormier and a pair of fielding errors before Lawler flied out to deep left field to end the game.

At 10-11, New Auburn is a lock for the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Zone 3 tournament. Bessey Motors (15-5) was already a lock at No. 2, although it still must play Cole Farms (9-11) in a continued game on Wednesday. That game is tied 4-4 in the eighth inning.

[email protected]