LEWISTON – A dozen walks, five hit batsmen and four wild pitches by his pitching brethren on both sides provided Mat Gordon with the impetus. A newly-minted two-run lead provided him with the incentive.

Gordon did what his predecessors couldn’t do – throw strikes – and finally slammed the door on a pesky Lewiston team with two innings of scoreless relief as Edward Little outlasted Lewiston 13-9 Friday at Franklin Field.

The junior lefty took the hill in the bottom of the sixth after an RBI double by Ryan Arnold and an RBI single by Shane Ciriello broke a 9-9 tie in the top of the frame.

Wildness by EL pitchers had allowed the Blue Devils to battle back after falling behind 8-4 early. Gordon fanned the first two batters he faced, then gave up a single to Chris Jacques and momentarily lost the strike zone while walking Jeff Keene. He then got Scott Ouellette looking on a biting curve to end the threat.

“I think I just got my mechanics back and that made me throw strikes,” said Gordon. “It’s pretty tough at the beginning of the year because I haven’t been throwing for a while to get my mechanics back.”

The Red Eddies (2-0) added insurance in the seventh on sacrifice flies by Devin Flynn and Cody Goddard. Gordon then shook off a Mekae Hyde double in the bottom of the frame and closed the win out on a nice sliding catch in right by Josh Mains.

“He’s got superior talent to a lot of these guys,” Hartley said of Gordon. “He plays baseball year-round. His mechanics are outstanding. He’s very competitive. He wasn’t slated to go today, but then yesterday I said, ‘You know, this could be a big Heal Point game. Lewiston’s going to win a lot of games, so if I need you, are you going to be ready to go?’ And he said, ‘Hell yeah, coach. No problem.'”

Shawn Hird led EL’s 14-hit attack with three hits, including a pair of doubles, and three runs batted in. All nine EL starters got a hit, led by Flynn, who added a home run and drove in a pair with two hits. Kenzie Souders, Mains and Arnold accounted for two runs and two hits apiece as the Red Eddies scored in every inning.

“We just feel like we go one-through-nine in the order,” said Hartley. “We’ve only got two or three kids on the bench and they all hit. It’s hard for me to get guys moving (on the bases) or think about a bunt situation because we just have so many guys that can hit.”

Corey LeBlond led Lewiston (1-1) with a pair of hits and four runs batted in.

“I’m very proud that we were down a significant amount of runs twice and came back,” Lewiston coach Todd Cifelli said. “We had a good approach against some good pitchers today.”

Mains took a good approach against Lewiston starter Joe Sullivan to spark the Eddies in the leadoff spot. Down in the count 0-2 to start the game, he worked Sullivan for a walk. That started a four-run first highlighted by Flynn’s RBI single, Hird’s two-run double and a sac fly by Gordon.

“He’s got to take every at-bat like a professional leadoff hitter. He’s got to see pitches,” Hartley said of Mains. “He’s a good two-strike hitter. When he and I first met, he said he loves that role, but I don’t know if he understood what that role was. I know he understands it now.”

Aided by an error and two hit batters, Lewiston began chipping away off EL starter Goddard in the bottom of the first with a two-run single by LeBlond to make it 4-2. Flynn’s opposite field homer to left gave EL a 5-2 cushion in the second.

A two-out error gave the Eddies two more runs in the third. The Devils immediately got those two back on LeBlond’s second RBI single and a wild pitch.

Jeff Keene relieved Sullivan to start the fourth and quickly gave up a lead-off double to Souders, who scored on a two-out double by Hird that 8-4.

“We were consistently behind in counts,” Cifelli said. “In six out of seven innings they had the lead guy on. A lot of teams do this, but we preach getting ahead and getting the lead guy off, and we didn’t do that. But our pitchers will come back.”

Lewiston came back with five in the fourth despite just one hit off of relievers Flynn and Souders. Flynn yielded a leadoff single to Keene, then issued three walks and hit a pair of batters before giving way to Souders with one out. Souders looked like he might escape with a tailor-made double play ball hit by Jacques, but the relay to first was wild, sending Robbie Leeman and LeBlond home with the tying and go-ahead runs.

EL tied it at 9-9 in the fifth on an unearned run driven in by Mains. Souters walked a pair in the bottom of the sixth but emerged unscathed to earn the victory.