TURNER – Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin was telling a teaching colleague earlier in the day Wednesday that in his seven years with the Cougars, he’d never had a team go the entire season without hitting a home run.

He didn’t know his starting pitcher later that day, Brian Wells, would help the 2004 Cougars avoid a dubious distinction, and do so in grand style.

Wells’ grand slam capped a nine-run fourth inning as the Cougars rode the big inning to a 10-5 win over Leavitt Wednesday.

“We’ve been waiting for Brian to do that all year,” said Parlin, whose team concludes the regular season Friday against Lawrence. “He’s been hitting everything on a line this year. He’s got a lot of doubles, which I’d much rather have, because you don’t live off of home runs in this league.”

The Cougars (11-4) broke through in the fourth after it appeared through the first three innings that most of the breaks would go against them.

Leavitt (7-8) mounted a pair of two-out rallies to take an early lead on Wells. A two-out single by Tony Pirruccello (3-for-4, double, three RBIs) put them up 1-0 in the first, then an RBI double by Chad Schrepper (2-for-4, two runs) and RBI single by Alex Cutter with two down in the second made it 3-0.

Mt. Blue put runners on base in each of the first three innings against Leavitt starter Adam Sawyer. But the Hornet defense helped keep Sawyer out of trouble in the second, when Schrepper doubled-up a Cougar runner at first on a fly out to center, and in the third, when Donny Hinkley hustled from left field to back up an errant throw to third and cut down a surprised runner at the plate.

The Hornets seemed to have the leather working in their favor again in the fourth. After back-to-back doubles by Alex Martin (2-for-5) and Wells finally put the Cougars on the board, Brandon Hinkley made a diving stop of a Steve Wells liner to short to temporarily save a run.

Unfortunately for Sawyer, his defense abandoned him after that, committing three infield errors to keep Cougar rally alive. A throwing error by the second baseman brought two runs home to tie the game, and Nick Tibbets’ infield hit drove in the go-ahead run. A sacrifice bunt, a walk, and another error with two outs loaded the bases for Wells, who promptly crushed an 0-1 fastball from Sawyer over the fence in left to make it 9-3.

“I wasn’t trying to hit it out. I was just trying to hit it hard and it just took off,” Wells said.

“We should have gotten out of that inning down 5-3, not 9-3. We didn’t make a couple of plays we should have made,” Leavitt coach Dave Morin said. “The bottom of the inning before that, we had bases loaded, up 3-0, and we get a couple of key hits and we might be up 5-0 or 6-0.”

Indeed, some fine defense by the Cougars the inning before their big rally may have turned the game in their favor. Leavitt loaded the bases with one out in the third, but Chris Silva made a perfect throw from center to nail Brandon Smith at the plate and keep the Hornets from breaking the game open.

Wells (six innings, seven hits, three earned runs, three strikeouts, two walks) began to find his groove on the mound the next inning. He set the side down in order in the fourth and sixth and retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced, with only an error denying him a perfect fifth.

“(The big inning) definitely helped me settle down, but the longer I go into a game, the more comfortable I get,” he said. “I was having trouble throwing strikes low today. Then I got a little bit looser and I was throwing strikes down low.”

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