The Winthrop Red Sox held off the Downeast Dodgers, 9-5, on Friday night, before falling from the unbeaten ranks with a 10-8 Sunday loss to Bethel in Pine Tree League senior baseball.

Brett Witherell’s two-out, two-run home run in the fifth inning and a two-out, two-run single in the seventh provided the punch in the win at Boothbay Harbor. Witherell drove in five runs on the night.

Trailing 9-4 in the eighth, Downeast (1-6) threw a scare into Winthrop. Max Arsenault doubled to lead off the inning. Eddie Crocker drew a walk, followed by an RBI single from Darren Hartley.

Following a walk to Steve Curtain loading the bases with no outs, Witherell came on in relief of pitcher Josh Guay. With the tying run at the plate, Witherell induced two pop-ups and a fly out to center, ending the threat.

Starting pitcher Dennis McHugh picked up his second win in less than a week, working five innings. Winthrop’s Ian McCarthy, Matt McCarthy and J.P. Palleschi also repeated at the plate. Arsenault and Harry Dwyer were repeat hitters for the Dodgers.

Having won only one other contest all season, the Bethel Athletics (2-5) took advantage of timely hitting from Levi Brown (three hits, two RBIs, two runs) to toppled the Red Sox at Gould Academy.

Winthrop (8-1) touched up starting pitcher Jason Rosenberg early with four runs in the first inning, led by Eric Palleschi’s two-run double. The A’s chipped away with two runs in the second and one in the fourth as Rosenberg settled down.

Bethel took a 6-4 lead in the fourth, punctuated by Wade Osgood’s home run into the trees in left field.

With Bethel on top 10-6 going into the top of the ninth, Winthrop made a valiant effort to stay unbeaten. Josh Nichols led off the inning with a single followed by a Dave Ricker Sr. double to chase Rosenberg from the mound.

Brown entered and forced a pop-up to the first batter he faced for the initial out of the inning. After consecutive RBI singles from Matt McCarthy and Sam Shain, Winthrop loaded the bases with the help of an infield error.

Dave Ricker Jr. hit an apparent game-tying single up the middle, but the runner at second was called for interference for the second out. Brown retired the next batter on a force out to save the game.

Josh Aylward matched Brown with three hits for Bethel. Rick Whitney and Rosenberg also were repeat offenders. Shain and Brett Witherell led Winthrop with three hits each, Nichols and Palleschi collected two apiece.