LEWISTON – On Thursday, one day after losing a game that they feel they should have won, the Mt. Blue Cougars spent a long practice working on hitting in all kinds of situations.

On Friday, in the team’s first game action, the practice paid off.

Eleven different players collected at least one hit and Ben Saviello pitched three innings of scoreless, one-hit baseball as Mt. Blue cruised to a 15-0 win over Lewiston at Franklin Pasture in just five innings.

“We had a great hitting practice yesterday,” Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin said. “We practiced the hit-and-runs, the bunts, everything. Edward Little (Wednesday’s opponent) outplayed us, but I don’t think we hit like we should have. This is a veteran team and we showed up and hit like it today.”

And the hits that the Cougars (9-2) belted were unconventional of sorts. Normally a team that thrives on line drives and timely ground-ball singles, Mt. Blue benefited from an intense wind blowing out toward left and left-center field all afternoon.

“We normally don’t like to hit fly balls like we did today,” Parlin said, “but with this wind, it actually worked to our benefit.”

Already ahead 3-0 after the second inning, the Cougars opened the game wide up in the third. Brian Wells (2-for-4, two runs scored) led off the inning with a double and scored on the next pitch as Jake Hardy tripled over the centerfielder’s head. Chris Silva took the next pitch deep to left and scored Hardy, and after a Matt Tripp single, Silva scored on a Saviello sacrifice fly. Steve Wells drove in two more with a single later in the inning, pushing the score to 8-0.

“We told the kids before the game that we had to play deep in the field today because of the wind,” Lewiston coach Don King said. “They weren’t playing deep enough.”

Mt. Blue added four more runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth to finish the scoring. Hardy Silva and Tripp all finished with two runs scored. Hardy had three hits to lead all hitters.

Lewiston hitters managed just four total hits, three off of reliever Chris Grant, who struck out three in two innings of relief. Nick Langlais, the losing pitcher, had one of those hits. Mark Miller, David Labonte, and Mike Johnson had the others.

Lewiston drops to 3-8 on the season and plays again Saturday, when Zack Timmermeyer is scheduled to be the starting pitcher.

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