AUBURN — Saturday’s twinbill between rivals William J. Rogers Post 153 of Auburn and Pastime Club of Lewiston served as a reminder to the rest of Zone 3 just how tough of a grind this season will be, given the added importance of the regular season and what appears to be an influx of solid, experienced pitching across the 10-team region.

Five aces, 526 pitches and 17 innings after it started, Josh Delong took ball four high and away to force home Tyler Blanchard with the winning run as Rogers Post swept Pastime, 1-0 and 3-2, at Pettengill Park.

“As a group we didn’t hit the ball that well, but it pays off to have that (patient) plate approach,” Delong said. “If we’re not putting it in play as well as we can be, we have to find other ways to produce runs.”

“Any time you face that team, that’s a heck of a team,” Rogers Post coach Troy Crane said. “You know you’re going to be in for a good game. That’s a talented team, a great group of guys. For us to go 10 innings before anyone even pushed across a run, that was amazing.”

Rogers Post managed only five hits in the second contest and just six in the opener, but pushed across key runs when needed thanks to patient plate appearances and some timely Pastime errors.

Pastime, meanwhile, mustered only nine total hits on the day, including only three in the second game. In the first game Pastime scattered six base hits but never sent more than five people to the plate in any one inning.

“We talked about trying to get guys into scoring position with one out or no outs, or even to third, and when we did that, we didn’t come up with the clutch hits we needed,” Pastime coach Dave Jordan said.

Game 1 came down to which team would blink first. Pastime starter Corbin Hyde struck out 11 in five innings of work and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in his fifth and final inning with a pair of strikeouts. Nate Pushard countered with 117 pitches and seven strong innings for the home team, allowing four runners to reach third base, but never allowing them to score.

Mike Hammond relieved Pushard in the eighth and retired nine of the 10 hitters he faced to ultimately earn the win.

And it was Hammond who truly earned the win for himself in the bottom of the 10th. After reaching on a walk, Hammond broke for second and beat the throw from catcher Alex Small.

“When Mike put himself in position — he reads the ball well, he’s a smart kid — there was that chance,” Crane said.

With the count 2-1 to Blanchard, Luke Cote — in his fifth inning of relief — caught Hammond breaking from second to third on a steal attempt, but his throw to third sailed into foul territory, allowing Hammond to scamper home for the only run of the game.

“It was kind of a gamble, really,” Hammond admitted. “But that’s baseball. At that point, I actually didn’t know the pitcher had looked over. I got near third and I saw the ball go flying, so I said, ‘Well, I guess I’m going (home).'”

Game 2 started much the same way, with Ryan Riordan getting the call for Pastime and Lew Jensen taking the hill for Rogers. It was scoreless again through 4 1/2 innings before John Simpson turned a walk and stolen base into a run on a Nate Blais single for a 1-0 Rogers lead.

Pastime scored its only two runs of the day in the top of the sixth to grab a brief lead. Gage Cote led off with a double and stole third after Hyde walked. Both players ran home on a throwing error on a ball put in play by Riordan.

The lead was short-lived. Delong reached on a walk, hustled to third on a bad pickoff throw and scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Pushard. That run was charged to reliever Brandon Hovey.

Michael Wong came in after Delong’s walk and pitched 1 2/3 hitless innings but allowed two runs to cross on an error, three walks and a fielder’s choice to suffer the loss.

“We were getting into the back end of who we had available,” Jordan said. “You go with who you have, and today, I thought we battled well, but some of our younger guys didn’t quite have the control that they needed.”

Rogers Post takes its momentum into a Tuesday tilt at unbeaten Windham, while Pastime travels to Brunswick for its next contest, also on Tuesday.