LIVERMORE FALLS — A good defense will never turn down the opportunity to turn a double play. But not all twin-killings are created equal.

Spruce Mountain turned unconventional double plays in three big spots to rally and then hold off Wiscasset, 5-3, at Griffin Field on Friday.

Payton Kennison shook off a rocky first inning to go the distance and pick up the win, fanning 10 while allowing five hits, two walks and two hit batsmen. But he found himself in a precarious position in the seventh inning when he loaded the bases with a single, walk and infield single with nobody out.

Kennison struck out Devin Grover looking for the first out. Zach Ellison then hit a line drive to first baseman Ben Keene, who came in a step and gloved the ball near the ground. Wiscasset thought he trapped the ball, but it was ruled a catch. Amid the confusion, Keene quickly stepped on first base to end the game.

“The last two games, we’ve had two 4-6-3’s with the tying run at first,” Spruce Mountain coach Brian Dube said. “Either way, it should have been a double play ball anyway, because (Wiscasset’s base runners) froze on it.”

“It was on a hop and my guy (at first) did what he had to do and froze,” Wiscasset coach Todd Souza said. “He read it as a hop and so he took a step in one direction and (the umpire) called ‘catch,’ and he was stuck. It’s just bad luck. That’s baseball.”

Wiscasset had another bit of bad luck an inning earlier. Trailing 4-3 with runners on second and third and one out, Corey Hodgeson hit a line drive on the nose but right at second baseman Evan Castonguay, who caught it and threw to third to double-up the runner, who was already halfway home.

“I really appreciate what my defense did for me today. They really showed up to play,” Kennison said.

Wiscasset (7-6) tested that defense and Kennison quickly with a three-run first. Jason Weatherbee’s double and a wild pitch made it 2-0. Hodgeson then put down a squeeze bunt off home plate. With Weatherbee staying close to the thrid base bag, Kennison fielded it, looked at first, then tried to get Weatherbee at third. Weatherbee broke for home and beat catcher Bill Calden’s tag to make it 3-0.

The Phoenix (8-5) responded immediately with two in the bottom of the first off Weatherbee (6 IP, 2 ER, 8 H, 8 K, 3 BB). Keene’s single plated Jake Bessey with the first run and Calden reached on a dropped third strike that scored Eli Capen.

Capen beat out an infield single as Pat Ryan scored the tying run in the second. Capen duplicated the feat to drive in pinch runner Lucas Preble with what proved to be the winning run in the fourth.

After his shaky first inning, Kennison shut out the Wolverines, retiring nine in a row at one point. He broke that string by hitting Hodgeson in the fourth, but Calden quickly erased that miscue by throwing him out attempting to steal second.

“I was just trying to find my release point and stick with it,” Kennison said. “I kind of dropped to a 3/4 arm slot instead of my normal over-the-top.”

“Right off the bat, we gave up three runs, but he kept his head in there and did what he was supposed to do,” Calden said. “We were just nailing them on those outside strikes. That brought us all the way up to about the fifth inning, then when they started hitting the outside strikes, we had to mix in a few other balls and that’s when we really had to get our defense working.”

The Phoenix got an unearned insurance run in the sixth when Nate Hamblin, pinch hitting for an injured Jake Bessey (two hits) drove in Brandon Stearns with a two-out single.

“What I was happy about today was we fought through some adversity going down 3-0 right off,” Dube said. “We came back and tied it up and Payton settled in about the third inning. I knew it was going to be a battle right to the very end.”