SOUTH PORTLAND — Down by a run before the start of the seventh inning, Alex Wong gave his Gayton teammates a pep talk with the theme of stepping on the opponents’ throats.

If batting around in each of the final four innings of Wednesday’s American Legion state tournament game didn’t suffice, Wong’s teammates need to talk to him about setting impossibly high standards.

Gayton pummeled Fayette-Staples for 22 hits, worked 15 walks and a pair of hit batsmen, rallied from two five-run deficits and eventually pulled away for a 22-13 victory in the first round of the double-elimination tournament at Wainwright Sports Complex.

“We came back last game. We knew we could come back this game.” said second baseman Luke Cote, who reached  base in six of his eight plate appearances and scored six runs. “Wong stepped up and gave us a little speech and we came back.”

Gayton (20-3), which rallied in the ninth inning to win last Saturday’s play-in game, advances in the winner’s bracket to face Brewer at 4 p.m. Thursday. Fayette-Staples (16-5) will take on Augusta in the loser’s bracket.

Wong (four hits, home run) and fellow table-setter Cote (three hits, double) led Gayton’s merry-go-round offense, which tallied 19 runs while sending 40 hitters to the plate to face seven different Fayette-Staples pitchers in the final four innings. Alex Parker, in the No. 9 hole, added three hits and scored three times.

With the table-setters getting on regularly, Mekae Hyde (four RBIs), Jeff Keene (three RBIs), Greg LaBonte (four RBIs), Scott Ouellette (three hits, two RBIs) and Corbin Hyde (three RBIs) knocked them in.

“I didn’t realize that,” Gayton coach Todd Cifelli of his team’s four straight times around the order. “The kids had some great approaches at the plate. They’ve worked very, very hard with (hitting) coach Dave Jordan over the summer and the fruits of their labor certainly came forward today.”

Pitchers on both sides labored until Corbin Hyde took the hill in relief in the seventh. When it seemed no one else could get outs (three Gayton pitchers had surrendered eight runs over the previous two innings), the southpaw locked down Fayette-Staples, allowing two hits and a hit batsmen while fanning five and not walking a soul in his three innings of work to pick up the win.

“The umpire had a pretty good strike zone, so I just painted the corners,” Hyde said. “I’d pitch them outside, then get them inside with a fastball, jam them with something they weren’t expecting.”

“I think a couple of our pitchers would have fared a little bit better, but I think we gave up some free bases today,” Cifelli said. “At the end of the day, our offense kept us in it and Corbin settled things down for us.”

In a contest that would take nearly four hours, Fayette-Staples burst out to a 5-1 lead against Gayton starter Mat Gordon after Chris Stasio’s second-inning grand slam. Fayette-Staples starter Keegan Sullivan limited Gayton to one run through the first four innings and had an 8-3 lead to protect when Gayton rallied to tie it with five in the sixth against Sullivan and reliever James Kenney. The big blow was a two-run double by Mekae Hyde.

Fayette-Staples touched Gayton relievers Keene and LaBonte for five runs of its own in the bottom of the sixth thanks in part to a two-run triple by Sam Butts.

Two walks, a hit batter and a passed ball helped Gayton rally for four runs off Kenney and Matt Turnage in the seventh.

“We didn’t execute in the field and we didn’t throw strikes,” Fayette-Staples coach Ray Petit said. “They’re a similar team to us. They hit. We just couldn’t get anybody out.”

After Hyde worked a quiet bottom of the seventh, Gayton grabbed tied the game in the eighth on Wong’s hit-and-run single and grabbed the lead for good on Mekae Hyde’s sacrifice fly to score Cote. LaBonte and Corbin Hyde added to the barrage with two-run singles.

Cote sparked the four-run ninth with a walk and a stolen base that preceded Wong’s two-run blast to right.

“I just work the count a lot, see if they throw some balls, take walks if you’ve got them, take a hit-by-pitch, and bloop one in there every once in awhile,” Cote said.

“We’ve thrown a lot of things at him, whether it was playing first base or playing the middle infield in the spring, getting DH’d for or batting at the bottom of the order, then moving him to the top of the order,” Cifelli said. “Every challenge we’ve thrown at him, he’s succeeded with.”

Stasio led Fayette Staples with five RBIs, while Steve Trask ripped three doubles and knocked in a pair.