SOUTH PORTLAND — Jamie Ross was far from perfect, but he was very good when he had to be.

Nova Seafood’s ace pitched three innings of scoreless relief and drove in a pair of runs to knock off Bessey Motors, 7-4, in the first round of the double-elimination state American Legion tournament Wednesday at Wainwright Sports Complex.

With Bessey leading 4-2 and threatening to break the game open in the sixth, Ross came on to solve a bases-loaded, one out situation, then wiggled out of two more jams to send his team to the winner’s bracket.

“He lost it there a little bit, but he’s a cool character,” Nova coach Mike D’Andrea said. “He’s a guy that pressure doesn’t really bother him too much. But what worried me was, I don’t know if he understands the severity of (allowing) the baserunners. It’s not like we ever lost confidence in him, though.”

Bessey(19-3)  must beat Gardiner Thursday (10 a.m. first pitch) to avoid elimination. Nova (18-3) meets Bangor in the winner’s bracket.

“Their pitcher came in and pitched great. That was the difference,” Bessey coach Shane Slicer said. “We had some things going. We got some guys in scoring position. We just didn’t get the key hit. (Ross) is probably the hardest thrower we’ve seen all year.”

Ross relieved Nova starter Travis Wade after Wade surrendered three straight one-out singles to the bottom of Bessey’s order in the sixth. Ross fanned Andrew Kenniston on a 2-2 pitch, then got John Wikin Award winner Matt Verrier, a travel teammate of  his, to pop out to shortstop to preserve the one-run lead.

“I’ve played with him for five or six years. I know he’s a power hitter and he loves to just pull that and drive it however far he hits it,” Ross said of Verrier. “I knew I either wanted to keep it low or get him to pop up. I got him to pop up on one a little bit above the belt. I’m just glad he didn’t drive it over the fence.”

Bessey starter Erik Henderson (6 1/3 innings, 4 runs, 1 earned, 5 hits, 4 Ks, 4 walks, 1 HBP) blanked Nova through the first five innings before he began to tire.

“I think we were just a little anxious to start,” Ross said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys and just had a lot of jitters coming in. After a couple of times around the order, we got the hang of it.”

A one-out triple and two walks chased him in the seventh after 117 pitches. Reliever Cody Hadley got Nick Colucci to hit a grounder to second baseman Keniston, who made a nice stab and threw to shortstop Brendan Chase at the bag to start a possible double play. Keniston’s throw was high, however, and while Chase was able to get the out at second, his subsequent throw to first sailed allowing the tying run to score.

Ross knocked in the go-ahead run with a flare that landed between the retreating Keniston and charging right-fielder Dan Place.

Nova added two insurance runs in the eighth on an RBI single by Matt Bevilacqua and a triple by Wade.

Bessey tagged Wade for its four runs in the fifth. With one out, Wade intentionally walked Verrier to load the bases and pitch to Chase, who hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Travis Linehan with the game’s first run. An errant throw from third by Devon Fitzgerald plated two more runs and Evan Humphrey made it 4-0 with an RBI single.

A pair of two-out walks by Ross gave Bessey a chance at tying the game again in the seventh, but Ross got Ethan Davidson to ground back to him to end that threat. Ross issued a hit and a walk to start the ninth to get the tying run to the plate, but he induced a pop out by Hadley and back-to-back K’s to Humphrey and Nate Dubois to end it.

Verrier, Linehan and D.J. Croy led Bessey with two hits apiece.

“We’re still in the tournament,” Slicer said. “We have a deep pitching staff. I think we’re in decent shape depending on what other teams have used up.”