LEWISTON — Gayton waited two hours for Swasey-Torrey  to arrive with the required number of players on Saturday, then made quick work of the team from Dixfield.

The defending state champions finished unbeaten and put a bow on their regular season Zone 3 title with an 11-1 victory in five innings at Franklin Field. It was the 13th time Gayton has invoked the 10-run mercy rule this season.

Jeff Keene led the offense by going 3 for 4 with a triple and three RBIs. Joe Sullivan and Chris Madden chipped in with two hits and an RBI apiece. Corbin Hyde walloped a home run and was one Connor Blais solo homer from throwing a shutout.

The teams were originally scheduled to play a doubleheader, but Swasey-Torrey had to forfeit the first game due to lack of players. After a two-hour delay, coach Todd Fenstermacher was able to round up enough players for Game 2.

“One of the things I was most proud of this year was our attitude today,” Gayton coach Todd Cifelli said. “We moved the game back (originally) to noon and showed up at 10 (a.m.). They didn’t have enough kids for the game and I thought that we had a very workmanlike attitude before the game. They were mentally into it. It’s tough. We need to be ready for that in the state tournament because sometimes you sit around a little bit.”

“I think we have a connection not a lot of people have,” said Madden, who reached base three times with a double, single and walk. “We play a lot of these other teams and they come from five different towns, five different schools, and we come from Lewiston with a couple of other guys from other schools (Edward Little, Lisbon and St. Dom’s). But we’ve all been playing together since Elliot (Little League) and majors and there’s a certain chemistry that goes there.”

Gayton (18-0) averaged more than 11 runs per game this season, so the seven walks, two hit batsmen and five errors surrendered by Swasey-Torrey Saturday weren’t necessary but welcome.

Starter Derek Volkernick walked two and hit a batter to load the bases in the first. He nearly escaped trouble when he fanned Scott Ouellette for the second out, but Keene lined a 3-2 pitch over the centerfielder’s head to clear the bases. The throw from the outfield missed the cutoff man, which allowed Keene to scamper home for a 4-0 lead.

Gayton added an unearned run in the second and two more in the third on RBI singles by Sullivan and Luke Cote. Hyde made it 8-0 in the fourth by crushing a 3-2 pitch from reliever Eric Bolduc to the opposite field for a solo shot.

“It was a full count so I figured he was going to throw me a fastball,” Hyde said. “I knew that he was getting quick to the plate, so I was a little late getting my front foot down, so I really focused on that. I saw it real well and just waited on it.”

Blais waited on a first-pitch fastball from Hyde and pulled it over the left field fence to spoil Hyde’s shutout bid in the second.

“Nobody was really catching up on the fastball, so I just kept throwing it until somebody caught up with it,” Hyde said. “It was right down the middle and he caught up with it and just ripped it.”

Hyde followed the homer by retiring the next seven straight, five in a row on strikes. He worked out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth and stranded two runners in the fifth. He struck out 10 in five innings while yielding three hits and three walks.

Gayton scored three in the fifth to put a cap on it. Two of those runs scored when a dropped third strike resulted in an errant throw to first. Madden drove in the 11th run with a game-ending single.

“You look at our lineup, one through nine, and everyone can hit,” Madden said. “Even the guys on the bench would probably start on a lot of other teams, too. We’re really raking the ball this year.”

With the regular season crown, Gayton clinches a spot in the state tournament and the No. 1 seed in the zone tournament, which opens Thursday.

“It’s going to take a lot of effort, a lot of doing the little things right, and pitching, pitching and hitting (to repeat as state champs),” Hyde said. “We’ve got to come up big in situations on the mound and hitting.”

Izaak Mills and Caleb Turner had the other hits for Swasey-Torrey (4-11), which  still has three games left on its regular season schedule. Depending upon how those turn out (and whether it has enough players to play those games), it could find itself back in Lewiston again for the first round on Thursday.

“We only have four wins now, and there is an opportunity, I guess, for Andy Valley and Mechanic Falls to overtake us in the eight spot,” Fenstermacher said.  “(Zone) commissioner (Jeff) Benson is graciously allowing us to get our games in this year, so we are going to take advantage of that and get these guys experience. The core group that’s been coming out is faithful, devoted and they have talent, and when they play well together they can take on any club.”