WINDHAM — Gayton Post 31 proved there is indeed strength in numbers during Saturday’s American Legion doubleheader with Windham.

Unfortunately for the rest of Zone 3, Gayton also proved it has many more strengths besides depth.

Spurred by contributions from every part of the lineup, flawless defense and outstanding pitching efforts by Ryan Riordan and Corbin Hyde, Gayton swept Windham, 8-2 and 12-0, at Windham High School to knock the hosts from the unbeaten ranks, where the defending state champs (8-0) now stand alone.

Offensively, Gayton put immediate pressure on Windham in almost every inning. Ten of 13 leadoff hitters reached base. Eight of them scored.

“Usually when we get the leadoff hitter on, we usually move runners, so we either have a guy bunt, hit-and-run, so we’re usually moving guys first-to-third pretty quickly,” said leadoff hitter Luke Cote, who in the two games reached base four times, scored twice, stole four bases and drove in two runs. “We were stealing bases today because they had a new catcher.”

Defensively, Gayton augmented two errorless games with some sparkling flashes of leather, including two plays by third baseman Scott Ouellette where he charged the ball, scooped it with his bare hand and nabbed the runner at first, and a spectacular double play after a rolling stop by shortstop Alex Parker.

“There’s a lot of athleticism in that infield and the outfield,” Gayton coach Todd Cifelli said. “They’re fun to watch. They make extra special plays. I think when we play with energy, we make those plays. And we’ve certainly played with energy the last couple of days.”

Playing its fourth and fifth games in a five-day stretch, Gayton has had to rely on its pitching depth to continue its torrid start. In Game 1 Saturday, it was Lisbon’s Ryan Riordan who was called up from Junior Legion to make his first start with the big club. All Riordan did was hold Windham (3-2) hitless through the first 4.2 innings to pick up the win.

“We’re excited about the young guys that we have on our pitching staff,” Cifelli said. “Matt Bowen’s done a nice job out of the gates. Luke Cote’s done a nice job out of the gates. We’ve liked Ryan from afar. It’s a big start against a good baseball team in Windham, and he threw strikes, kept them off balance and the defense did a tremendous job behind him.”

His first time through Windham’s order, Riordan went nine up, nine down. He appeared stuck in reverse when he started the fourth by hitting Adam Szklany with his first pitch then walking Shayne Curtis. That prompted a visit to the mound from pitching coach Jim Hyde.

The pep talk couldn’t have gone better. Riordan went on the strike out the side, his only three strikeouts of the game.

“He just told me to throw strikes,” Riordan said.

“There’s definitely more competition up here because there’s more talent,” he added.

Windham finally knocked Riordan out with a run in the sixth and added another run off Parker in the seventh, but the game was well out of hand by then.

Cote set the tone for the day by leading off the game with a single, stealing second, moving to third on Parker’s ground out to the right side, and scoring on a Ben Noble wild pitch.

Gayton added three in the second on Chris Whitney’s sacrifice fly and Cote’s single, which brought a second  runner in on a Windham error. Another unearned run made it 5-0 in the third. Jeff Keene helped round out Gayton’s scoring with an RBI single and an RBI triple.

Keene and Mekae Hyde (three runs) led Gayton with three hits apiece. Curtis, a St. Dom’s graduate now attending St. Joseph’s College, led Windham with two hits, including a double.

Game 2 started out with a little de ja vu. Cote led off the game with a single, stole second, moved to third on a Parker grounder and scored on Mekae Hyde’s sacrifice fly. Corbin Hyde doubled the lead with a home run to right. He just missed another round-tripper in the third that ended up being a ground rule double to left.

Run-scoring singles by Trey Ouellette and Nate Berube (two hits, two RBIs) and a sacrifice fly by Scott Ouellette made it 6-0 Gayton after three.

Windham lost four of its starters to the holiday weekend, but a full complement probably wouldn’t have helped much against Corbin Hyde, who was in complete command in a two-hit shutout. The only time a runner tried to get past second he was tagged out in a rundown in the first inning. Keene helped shorten that inning, too, with a nice sliding grab of a pop foul outside of first base.

“(Being shorthanded) isn’t an excuse, because Gayton’s a heck of a team,” Windham assistant coach Aaron Talon said. “They’re very aggressive and they’re very well-coached and they’re disciplined. They’re tough to beat. I don’t care who you’ve got here. The way they ran the bases put pressure on our kids and they made some mistakes they don’t usually make because of the way they ran the bases.”

Gayton opened it up with a five-run sixth thanks to RBI singles by Parker and Berube and a two-run homer by Mekae Hyde. Corbin Hyde retired the final seven in a row to invoke the 10-run mercy rule after six.

After the second game, Cifelli told his team to get plenty of rest over the holiday.

“Wait until next week, because we’ve got six (games) in four days,” Cifelli said. “If the vast majority of our team shows up, there’s enough depth here that can get guys blows. In the last week, every kid’s gotten a start either in the field or on the mound and most guys have been able to sit. That’s big, even if it’s for a couple of innings.”

“We’re just looking forward to Tuesday. Nothing ahead of that,” Cote said. “We’ve got a tough week ahead of us and it starts Tuesday with Brunswick.”