LEWISTON — If the keyboard would allow it, Riley Chickering’s last name should appear through the remainder of this story with a backwards ‘K.’

The Oxford Hills left-hander etched plenty of those on the scorecard Wednesday afternoon. Five of his eight strikeouts went into the book after Skowhegan hitters eyeballed pitches on the outside corner.

That perfect placement offset four walks and a hit batter, allowing Chickering to spin one-hit ball through six innings in a season-opening 5-2 victory at Deschenes Field.

“The first inning or two I didn’t really feel comfortable, especially my off-speed stuff. I was missing high. As it went on, I felt a lot better,” Chickering said. “I had a lot of tail on my fastball, so I got them looking a lot of times.”

Dalton Rice’s two-run, two-out home run to left field in the fourth innings gave Chickering and the Vikings necessary breathing room.

Rice,  Matt Beauchesne, Ty Martin and Nick Attaliades-Ryan each had two hits for Oxford Hills, which played its opener at Lewiston High School’s Franklin Pasture complex because its own field is still drying.

“It’s baseball in Maine,” Rice said. “It’s a diamond that we can get on and show what we’ve got. That’s all that matters to me.”

Skowhegan stayed in the game while Chickering fine-tuned his control.

Trey Michonski led off the Indians’ first inning with a walk. He advanced to second on John Swett’s sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on Skowhegan’s only hit off Chickering, a two-out flare to right field by Kaleb Brown.

“I think that first inning was crucial for Skowhegan. It made us nervous,” Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer said. “We had a chance to put some runs on the board. We hit the ball hard.”

The Vikings answered with two in the bottom of the first and could have made a bigger splash. Rice’s RBI single and a bases-loaded walk by Nick Bowie produced the pair.

There were still none out when Attalides-Ryan smashed a ball to shortstop. Michonski snared it on the fly and flipped to Dallon Stevens for the double play.

“Six inches higher and we have another couple of runs and the game is a whole different situation,” Slicer said. “For the first time out, real game, I thought we squared up pretty well.”

Skowhegan tied it in the second when Chase Whittemore was hit by a pitch, moved up on Stevens’ sacrifice and scored when Ben Salley’s slow roller induced a throwing error to first.

Oxford Hills moved in front to stay against Swett in the third on Beauchesne’s leadoff single and Martin’s one-out double off the left field wall.

In the fourth, a booted ground ball cost Swett a 1-2-3 inning. Skowhegan’s lone error of the game was magnified when Rice ripped a no-doubter that covered 350 feet.

“I was looking for a fastball up. I had seen a lot of curveballs away,” Rice said. “I was just looking for something I could drive, and I knew when I hit it, it was going to go a little ways. I was just trying to get the job done.”

Oxford Hills amassed nine hits, seven in Swett’s four innings of work. Swett and reliever Nate Morris combined for seven strikeouts.

Rice closed it out for Chickering in the seventh, striking out Swett and Chase Nelsen after issuing a one-out walk to Morris.

Chickering’s only perfect inning was the third, but each of the first four frames ended in a strikeout.

“He got better as the game went on, I thought,” Slicer said. “We probably threw him a few too many pitches, but he looked good. He felt good.”

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