LIVERMORE FALLS – The Hall-Dale baseball team has had its ups and downs this season, but everything came together in a finale Friday afternoon.

Pitcher Ryan Leach was masterful with 10 strikeouts in a complete-game performance, and the Bulldogs offense capitalized on everything in a 7-1 win against Livermore Falls in Mountain Valley Conference action.

The triumph was doubly important for Hall-Dale 12-3 because of the valuable Heal Points in earning a potential bye in the playoffs. First, they will play in the MVC championship game against Mountain Valley next Monday at 4 p.m. at Thomas College in Waterville.

“We didn’t come in here thinking MVC,” Hall-Dale coach Tim Johnson said. “There was talk about it on the ride over, but I put the kibosh on that and told them the important thing was earning Heal Points.”

Hall-Dale (12-3) scored two runs in the third thanks to a solo homer by Tim Holbrook and Dylan Dupont’s RBI-single, which proved to be enough. The Bulldogs benefited by Leach’s domination of the Andies batters, who were baffled by the location. The right-hander allowed five singles, but had a strikeout in every inning, including pinch-hitter Damian Melnicole to strand two runners in the sixth.

“It is important for me to get ahead in the count,” Leach said. “That allows me to go with my finesse pitchers and not have to rely so much on my fast ball. This team is fired up and has momentum heading in to the playoffs.”

Leach and catcher Jake Levesque called a game that kept the batters off balance and swing at air. Leach threw approximately 95 pitches, walked one and hit Chandler White (two hits).

Livermore Falls (12-4) had manufactured a 1-0 lead in the first on a Josh Tainter’s RBI-ground out. White singled, James McLamp walked and Willie Brown laid a sac-bunt down. The Andies were ranked second in Heal Points last week, but could drop out of the top four.

It was Levesque’s two-RBI single down the left-field line that chased Andies starter Derek Castonguay with one out in the fifth. DH Dan Alexander led off with a single, Tyler Cummings laid down a sacrifice bunt, Leach (two hits) singled and Dupont walked to load the bases.

The free swinging Bulldogs hit seven of their 10 hits in two innings.

“That has been our Achilles Heal all season,” Johnson said. “We haven’t hit well or score runs, but (Monday) night we beat George’s Valley in a good game and the kids started to believe in themselves.”

Hall-Dale scored three runs in the seventh on a Jim McCullum single and Brandon Gilbert was plunked by a Brown pitch. The Andies’ defense committed two errors and a wild pitch bounced out of play.

“I knew coming in that Leach was good,” Livermore Falls coach Brian Dube said. “He was on through out the game and Hall-Dale outplayed us. We also made some mistakes on defense that cost us.”