By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Don King wasn’t sure what pitcher to use Tuesday night, but picking Nick Langlais proved to be a good decision.

Langlais hurled a complete game and scattered eight hits to lift Gayton to a 3-2 victory over New Auburn in American Legion action.

“We were kind of up in the air,” said King. “We got rained out this weekend. We weren’t sure if we wanted to bring Luke (Potter) back. Nick’s pretty durable, and with eight games in the next seven days, he’d have a good chance of getting a couple in. He pitched a gem today.”

Langlais was told Tuesday that he was going to pitch. He knew there was a chance he might be given the ball.

“It didn’t bother me,” said Langlais of the late notice. “I usually come ready to do what he wants me to do.”

Though New Auburn (12-3) got three hits and a run in the first inning, Langlais held the team in check the rest of the way. He walked just two batters and escaped a number of threats. New Auburn stranded eight runners.

“Nick’s done that to a lot of people this year,” said King. “He rolls it over and throws the knuckleball. He mixes it up. He keeps the hitters off balance, and when he does throw a fastball, it has surprising pop.”

Gayton (5-8) got all three runs in the second inning on two hits and two New Auburn errors.

“It’s nice to see us put the ball in play and try to do a few things and get a couple of guys moving,” said King. “That seemed to help us to make us more aggressive.”

New Auburn’s early lead came on a series of infield hits. A Kyle Giguere infield hit made it 1-0.

“I just forgot about it,” said Langlais. “They weren’t hitting it hard. So I knew I was doing something right.”

Gayton took the lead in the second. An Andrew Boulanger fielder’s choice tied the game. He scored on an error of a Chad Kordalski grounder, and Joe Stevens followed with an RBI single.

“Unearned errors killed us,” said New Auburn coach Jeff Benson. “Credit Langlais, he pitched a great game, and he kept us off balance. Tip you’re cap to him. He pitched a great game, and they took advantage of the errors we made in that inning. That’s what teams will do to win.”

New Auburn threatened in the third, loading the bases, but Langlais escaped that with a force at third.

A Justin Ciszewski single made it 3-2 in the fifth, but New Auburn stranded two others. In the sixth, New Auburn got the lead runner on, but Langlais produced a pair of pop outs to end the inning.

“We were on our front foot a lot on the off-speed stuff,” said Benson. “Rather than trying to shoot the ball, we were trying to pull the ball. We didn’t have a good approach to the plate.”