POLAND – Alex Smith’s eyes got wide in the waning sunlight and his smile grew two-fold when he overheard the word no-hitter.

“Did I really have a no-hitter?” Smith asked.

Mechanic Falls coach Walt Cary was equally surprised.

“How about that,” Cary chuckled.

The fact that Smith almost lost the game may have thrown them off, but thanks to a seeing-eye single in the bottom of the sixth by Mike Carpenter, Mechanic Falls climbed back to 9-9 on the season with a 5-3 win over Gayton Post 31 of Lewiston.

“The kid threw a heck of a game,” Gayton coach Don King said. When you got it going, you got it going, and he had it tonight.”

Also masking the no-hitter were errors – eight of them – that nearly cost Mechanic Falls the game.

“We’ve had our share of good defensive games this year,” Cary said, “but this wasn’t one of them.”

Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Nate Broyer walked on a full count, ending Gayton starter Zack Timmermeyer’s night. Timmermeyer finished with three earned runs on four hits on 89 pitches through 5-plus innings of work.

The next batter, Brent Cary, also walked off of relief pitcher Dustin Longchamps, and after Jeremy Callahan executed a sacrifice bunt, Andy Coleman belted a single to right field to plate the tying run.

“I think when (Longchamps) came in and was throwing heat, the guys got up a bit for him,” Walt Cary said. “There was something about it that you could notice.”

Two batters later, Mike Carpenter came up with his clutch hit, which he called “garbage,” that plated Cary and Coleman, putting the home team ahead for good.

“That doesn’t even deserve to be a hit,” Carpenter said. “I was just trying to foul it off.”

After flailing at two curve balls, Carpenter dribbled a single down the first base line that snuck underneath the fielder’s glove and into right field.

Gayton scored the game’s first run in the second inning after two errors on the same play by the second baseman, a sacrifice bunt and a fielder’s choice plated Luke Potter.

Mechanic Falls struck back with two runs on four bloop hits in the bottom half of the inning before Gayton again took the lead in the top of the fifth, again benefiting from multiple errors and one of Smith’s three walks on the night.

Gayton drops to 11-7 on the season with three games left on the schedule.