SOUTH PARIS – With five runs in the third inning, it looked as though Bessey Motors was going to advance easily to today’s second round of the American Legion Baseball Tournament.

It didn’t turn out to be such a breeze though. Bessey Motors did win its Zone III playoff game with a 9-3 win over Cole Farms. That was after holding off a pair of threats in the fourth and fifth, in which Cole Farms left four runners on.

“I think we relaxed a little bit too much, but I was happy that we came back with some intensity and put it away,” said Bessey Motor coach Shane Slicer.

Bessey Motors (16-6) will host Gayton Post today at 11 a.m.

Bessey Motors had built a 6-0 lead with five runs in the third. Cole Farms (9-13) gave up five hits and made two errors to aid the big inning.

“We haven’t had many of those,” said Slicer. “Our pitching has been great all year, but we haven’t had many landslides.”

After Mike Stacy scored in the second after being interfered with at third base on a Kevin Skalski infield hit, Bessey broke the game open the next inning. Joe Baker singled home Andrew Stacy. Baker scored on an error. Corey Tielinen followed with an RBI double, and Corey Saunders added an RBI single. Finally, Brent Grenier’s shallow fly out scored Mike Stacy.

“We couldn’t stop the bleeding,” said Cole Farms coach Aaron Tolan. “There were a couple of hard-hit balls and a couple of well-placed hits. We weren’t making the plays. They were taking the extra base. You can not spot a team with that much talent six runs in the first three innings.”

Baker had pitched three innings of hitless ball and the six runs appeared to be enough, but Cole Farms tried to rally. Three hits and two Bessey Motors errors helped get Cole Farms within 6-3 in the fourth. Tim DeLuca scored on an error on a double steal. Devon Gill singled in a run and Sam Forbes scored on a double steal.

Then in the fifth, Cole Farms had the bases loaded. Baker intentionally walked Louie Bernardini with two outs. Baker managed to escape by getting Forbes to fly out.

“When they had Bernardini up and it was 2-0 on him, he can hit it out of here,” said Slicer. “So I didn’t want him to tie it up. Joe came back and bore down to get the out. That was huge. If they’d scratched a couple there, we would have lost the momentum.”

Cole Farms never got another runner on base. Bessey Motors added three in the sixth. Andrew Stacy scored from second on a wild pitch. Baker scored on a balk and Tielinen tripled and came in on an error.

“They stopped the bleeding and we couldn’t,” said Tolan. “That was the difference in the game.”