Lewiston coach Todd Cifelli knows the conundrum all baseball coaches face when their team is in an offensive funk — stand pat and wait for the hitters to snap out of it or shuffle up the lineup and hope the change forces them to snap out of it.

Cifelli decided on the latter, even while acknowledging the changes would raise some eyebrows in a lineup that, for the most part, helped the Blue Devils win last year’s Eastern A championship.

“It’s a fine line between making adjustments and panicking,” he said.

After scoring 27 runs against Mt. Ararat on April 27, the Blue Devils plated just one run apiece in consecutive losses to Oxford Hills, Erskine and Cony. So Cifelli moved Shawn Ricker and Chris Madden up in the batting order and swapped leadoff hitter Luke Cote and No. 3 hitter Corbin Hyde.

Cifelli didn’t just randomly shuffle the deck.

“We wanted to move the lineup around to give us a jolt and also give other teams a different strategy on how to attack us,” he said. “It gives us a different element of speed in different pockets of the lineup, guys that put the ball and play and makes the hit-and-run element a little different now.”

The new lineup’s debut came Monday against Edward Little. It didn’t work instantly, as the Devils didn’t score until the fifth inning with a five-run outburst that featured a bases-clearing double by Cote.

“We had the week from hell last week,” Ricker said following the 5-0 win over Edward Little, in which he went 1 for 3 and scored a run. “Luke said he’s been hitting leadoff for three years, so everyone just deals for the better of the team.”

Cifelli credited the players with buying into the changes.

“It shows what great teammates and coachable kids Cote and Corbin are,” Cifelli said. “They didn’t bat an eyelash. None of the players did. They trusted the coaches.”

Hyde showed just how much he’s enjoying the leadoff role in Wednesday’s 11-3 win over Brunswick by going 4 for 5 with two doubles, three RBIs and three runs scored.

“I hit leadoff my first year in minors, I think. I think that was the only time, so this was a little different,” Hyde said. “I don’t mind. I think it’s pretty cool.”

The rest of the lineup responded against Brunswick, too. Madden went 2 for 3 with two runs and two RBIs. Cote went 1 for 3 with two runs scored and drove in a run. Nate Berube, who is hitting between Hyde and Cote in the No. 2 spot, had a pair of hits, scored a run, drove in one and stole a base.

Stranded Saints

St. Dom’s hit its way out of a little scoring slump of its own this week by totaling 19 runs in back-to-back wins over Winthrop and Lisbon. But even in the 10-5 win over Lisbon on Wednesday, there was one remnant of their struggles that carried over from losses to Wicasset, Hall-Dale and Spruce Mountain.

“Our biggest problem has been stranding runners,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “We had three consecutive games where we stranded 11 to 13 runners, and we stranded nine (against Lisbon).”

The Saints stressed situational hitting and being more selective at the plate in those scoring situations in the Lisbon win. They also got more timely hitting from the top of the lineup, which drove in all five runs with two outs as they pulled away from the Greyhounds in the third.

“It’s been the top of the lineup that hasn’t been producing,” Blackman said. “The bottom of the lineup has been getting on base and the top hasn’t been plating them. We did a little better job of that. I think that is more in tune with what to expect.”

Phoenix need to Spruce up

Spruce Mountain followed its big win over St. Dom’s last week with a truncated 11-0 loss to Telstar on Monday in which the Phoenix committed eight errors.

The disparity between the two performances and the 4-5 record are an indication of the lack of consistency that has coach Brian Dube scratching his head.

“We made one error in the St. Dom’s game. We played a great game,” Dube said. “We just didn’t have our heads in it against Telstar for some reason.”

The Phoenix were much more competitive in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Winthrop, but they need to turn things around quickly if they want to remain on the top half of the Western B Heal Point standings.

They have Boothbay, Winthrop again, Mt. Abram and Wiscasset over the next four games. None of those teams are as heralded as St. Dom’s or Telstar, but Dube said the Phoenix can’t afford to take any opponent for granted.

“People are going to expect us to win some of those games, but we can’t just throw the team out there and expect to win,” he said.

Pushard pushing Eddies forward

The biggest reason for Edward Little hovering around the top of the Eastern A Heals is pitching.

The Eddies have given up three or less runs in five of their nine games, winning four of them. As expected, veterans Luke Farrago and Nate Blais have been the anchors of the pitching staff. Sophomore Nate Pushard has added depth with some strong performances, most notably a five-hit complete game victory over Skowhegan early in the season.

“He’s just done a great job,” Edward Little coach Scott Annear said. “We saw him last year as a ninth grader and he was raw. He’s a pitcher. He absorbs everything you tell him. He’s a gamer. He competes and he does not get rattled. That’s one of the things I’ve been so impressed with.”

Key KVAC clashes

Weather permitting, Oxford Hills and Mt. Blue will probably be able to make their postseason plans based on how they fare over the next week.

The Vikings, who went into Thursday ranked second behind Bangor in the Eastern A Heals, face winless Lawrence on Friday, then encounter a tough slate of points-rich opponents. After they host Edward Little, which beat them, 8-5 on April 25, they’ll travel to face a couple of Rams, Cony and Bangor. The Vikes beat Cony, 7-2, on April 27 and have not faced Bangor.

While the Vikings will be fighting for home field advantage in the tournament, the Cougars will be fighting to get in. Ranked 11th as of Thursday, two spots out of the playoffs, Mt. Blue has a chance to make significant headway with a docket that starts with Cony on Friday, followed by home games with Brewer and Lewiston sandwiched around a meeting with Messalonskee in Oakland.