AUGUSTA – When the competition is this good, digging yourself into a first-inning hole is inadvisable, even though the games are extended from seven to nine innings for the state American Legion baseball tournament.

Locke Mills gave up four runs in the first and couldn’t recover, falling to Zone 2 champion Gardiner, 4-2, in the first round Wednesday at McGuire Field.

Gardiner moves on to face Andrews Post of Portland at 12:30 today. Locke Mills, one loss from elimination, must beat Penquis at 9 a.m. today to stay alive.

Kris Ramsay yielded two unearned runs and four hits while going the distance but had to overcome some tense early moments.

The Gardiner ace wiggled his way out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the first with the help of a nifty 3-2-3 double play executed by first baseman Dave Henderson and catcher Stefan Black.

“That was huge,” said Ramsay, who fanned six and walked one. “It could have gone either way, but we were still all positive on the team, so I knew we’d get out of it.”

Gardiner (18-4) got all the runs it needed in the bottom of the frame off Locke Mills starter Terry Collins. With one out, Mike Burdin singled and Stefan Black doubled. After Burdin scored and Black moved up to third on a wild pitch, Collins walked Henderson.

Tony Liberti gunned Henderson down trying to steal second for out number two, but then Nate Duncklee made it 2-0 with an RBI single.

Nate Munzing clubbed an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left to give Gardiner a 4-0 cushion.

“There was an awful long break for Terry in between getting warmed up (before the game) and getting on the mound,” Locke Mills coach Chris Olson said, referring to pre-game ceremonies that delayed the game a few minutes. “I don’t know if maybe he should have thrown again before that first inning. I don’t know if he was quite ready.”

Collins settled down nicely after the rocky start, giving up just three hits the rest of the way. Gardiner put together just one more serious threat, a bases-loaded, one out jam in the eighth, but Collins worked his way out of it by getting Henderson to pop out and Duncklee to ground out.

“He was efficient. He threw real well,” Olson said. “We had to get some timely hits.”

The timely hits never came, even though Gardiner’s defense was hit-and-miss all game and helped bring the tying run to the plate several times. Two errant throws on stolen base attempts in the fifth inning led to Locke Mills’ only runs by Shawn Marr and Richie Ross.

“Those errors got to me a little bit, but we all make mistakes and that’s baseball,” Ramsay said.

Ramsay didn’t rattle easily the rest of the way. Locke Mills (18-6) put runners on in the next three innings but never got anyone past second.