AUGUSTA – Slow-pitch softball scores are becoming the norm in a rain-ravaged, heavy-hitting American Legion Baseball state tournament, so why not a football score?

Evan Humphrey nailed the figurative extra point Monday with a first-pitch single to left field in the bottom of the ninth, hastening home Brandon Chase to help Bessey Motors survive a dizzying elimination game with Kennebunk, 14-13.

Any pigskin similarities were mildly appropriate, considering that Bessey (18-7-1) booted the ball around Morton Field to the tune of five errors.

“We hit the ball excellent. We fielded it terrible,” said Bessey Motors coach Shane Slicer. “That’s why it was a close game. Now we’re down to the point in the tournament where the teams get better, and we can’t give them extra opportunities.”

James Nutter’s field goal – that is, a three-run blast over the fence against eventual winning pitcher Cody Hadley – capped a five-run top of the ninth in which every Kennebunk run was unearned.

The Bessey-Kennebunk game started nearly a hour late due to wet grounds from a midday shower.

Round two was suspended due to a much heavier storm with Bessey leading Hampden-Hermon, 2-0, in the second inning. That game will pick up at 11 a.m. today next door at McGuire Field. The winner will wait around for a semifinal contest at 3:30 or 4 p.m. against an opponent to be determined.

Bessey’s five errors were forgiven, in part, because the Zone 3 regular-season champions were the home team and benefited from the last licks.

Chase drew a one-out walk against Rob Nutter, the fourth Kennebunk pitcher, and raced into scoring position on a wild pitch. Ryan Yates fouled off several two-strike pitches before coaxing a walk of his own to set the table for Humphrey’s heroics.

“(Rob Nutter) was throwing all fastballs, so as soon as I went up there I decided if he threw me a fastball on the first pitch I was going to try and rip it,” Humphrey said.

The haymakers started early. Longshot Kennebunk (11-18) of Zone 5 and the perennial power from Paris combined for 32 hits. Bessey gave away two different leads of at least four runs.

Humphrey and Travis Fillebrown belted back-to-back homers in the second inning. Yates’ two-run blast and a two-run double by Dan Millett bolstered Bessey to a seemingly safe 7-3 edge in the third.

Kennebunk immediately knotted it with four runs in the fourth before a stellar relief effort by Nate Dubois (4 1/3 innings, with scoreless sixth, seventh and eighth frames) salved that wound.

“That’s why it’s good to have a deep pitching staff,” said Dan Millett, who has been behind the plate for Bessey throughout the tournament due to an injury to Matt Verrier.

Verrier was available as a designated hitter Monday and was one of seven repeat hitters. Humphrey’s ninth-inning knock was his third of the game. Millett, Fillebrown, Yates and Brandon and Aaron Chase each added two.

The Nutters combined for nine Kennebunk hits, with three doubles preceding James’ homer.

“We knew it was going to be a slugfest,” said Slicer. “It took us a couple innings to get to each of their pitchers. They were pitching us outside, and we were trying to yank everything. Once we adjusted and hit it the other way, we put a pretty good smack on it. Even our outs were solid.”

Fillebrown’s RBI single and Aaron Chase’s two-run follow-up broke an 8-8 deadlock in the sixth. Brandon Chase belted a run-scoring double and Yates tacked on a sacrifice fly for insurance in the seventh.

Bessey came out swinging in the encore, too. Hadley’s double set up Yates’ RBI single for a 1-0 lead. D.J. Croy doubled ahead of a line drive by Dillon Trundy to make it 2-0 before the skies unleashed.

“After the first couple days, you’ve got to start scoring runs,” said Humphrey, whose team has crossed the plate 37 times in the tournament.