SOUTH PARIS – While riding the bus on the way to Gouin Field, Brewer coach David Morris knew his playoff game with Oxford Hills would be tough.

What he didn’t know was that all the runs it would need would be scored in the first inning.

Brewer scored five times in the top of the first, sending nine men to the plate, and got a solid pitching performance en route to a 5-2 upset over No. 3 Oxford Hills in an Eastern Class A quarterfinal matchup.

The Brewer hitters were patient. Rick Adams and Eric White set the tone, each walking to open the game against Vikings starter Ben Goodall. After fouling off five pitches, Brad Brown singled home Adams for the game’s first run.

“We knew Goodall was an all-star pitcher, we wanted to come in and play well both defensively and at the plate,” Morris said.

After an error and the right-handers third walk of the inning, Reid McLaughlin hit a 2-run triple down the right-field line. He then scored on the first of two singles by Caleb Smith, giving the Witches (12-6) a 5-0 advantage.

“I tried to throw the ball hard, and when I did, it seemed to get away from me,” Goodall said about his 60-pitch first inning. “Once I settled down and shortened my stride, things went OK.”

Thing were no going OK for the Vikings hitters, who were kept off balance by Greg Higgins’ curve ball. Higgins scattered six hits, while striking out eight and walking one.

The hurler appeared to get stronger, earning five of his strikeouts over the last four innings by freezing the batters and not allowing a runner to reach third base.

“We couldn’t figure out the curve today,” said Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer.

The Vikings (13-4) scored single runs in the first and third innings, but could not muster anything else.

“Every time we would try to get something going, we just couldn’t put anything together,” said Slicer.

Goodall knocked in both of the Vikings runs with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly.

Senior second baseman Ethan Sutton had a double, while Chris Roy added two singles and a stolen base in the loss.