MONMOUTH — Monmouth Academy’s pitching strategy so far this unblemished baseball season has been three innings and a cloud of dust.

So every time Nate Gagne made the short walk from the Chick Field mound to the home dugout Wednesday afternoon, coach Eric Palleschi would inquire, “One more? You got one more?”

By the end of the sixth, it had become a running joke, because Gagne hurled all that by-committee conjecture out the window with a perfect game in progress. Eighteen up, eighteen down.

“We were going to try to go 3-2-1-1. We’ve got the arms. We’re going to use them,” Palleschi said. “But you were going to need a wrecker to get him off the mound today.”

Gagne coaxed two easy groundouts before Ryan Sinclair played heartbreaker with a sharp single up the middle. Brian Allen then beat out an infield single before Gagne struck out Taylor Lockhart swinging to punctuate the two-hit shutout and a 6-0 Monmouth win.

It was Sinclair’s second stint as spoiler in six days. His sixth-inning single was the only hit against Dirigo’s Kaine Hutchins this past Friday.

“Usually I like to throw inside on big guys, so I tried to throw inside on him,” Gagne said. “I guess he likes inside pitches.”

The burly senior right-hander struck out five his first time through the order and eight in all.

Sinclair’s poke was only the fourth ball to reach the outfield. Gagne needed 80 pitches to polish the gem.

Gagne owns four of Monmouth’s five wins. He has started every game for the Mustangs, a streak that will end Friday against Spruce Mountain and Saturday at Lisbon, because he won’t be eligible to pitch until next week after the complete game.

“My fastball was working pretty good. My two-seamer was working really good today,” Gagne said. “The last couple of games I wasn’t throwing too good. I was kind of getting discouraged with myself. After the second inning I felt I was in my groove. I was down on the plate, throwing strikes.”

Brandon Goff was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI for Monmouth, which has outscored its first five opponents, 66-3, and is the last remaining undefeated team in the MVC.

Kyle Fletcher, D.J. McHugh and Brett Wilson each added two hits, with Fletcher — the left-handed ace of the pitching staff to complement Gagne — driving in a pair.

Monmouth scored single runs in the first, second and fifth off Hall-Dale starter Bobby Cumler, twice leaving the bases loaded, before breaking it open with Fletcher’s two-single and Alex Curtis’ RBI groundout against reliever Allen in the sixth.

“He had great location all day, kept us off balance and just pitched a great game. The team defensively supported him and didn’t give us many chances to win this game,” Hall-Dale coach Bob Sinclair said. “We got out of a couple jams where I thought the tide would turn, but the pitcher came out and kept getting us out inning after inning.”

Gagne benefited from two inning-ending defensive gems.

Jariah Caissie dove toward the third base line to stab a shot by Sinclair, then rose and fired across the diamond to finish the fourth. An inning later, freshman shortstop Hunter Richardson smothered a slow roller and Curtis dug out the quick throw at first to retire a hustling Alex McPherson.

“That’s probably the No. 1 thing. I want to give it to them too, because it’s not always me,” Gagne said. “I did throw a lot of strikes today, but I put the ball in the field a lot too, and they did a great job doing what they’re supposed to.”

“We’ve bought into that mindset of let’s pitch to contact, and if we’re going to pitch to contact, let’s make the plays,” Palleschi added. “Jariah made I don’t know how many plays at third. He’s been big for us.”

Allen narrowly beat out the second hit for Hall-Dale (4-3). After Gagne’s leaping attempt to knock it down, Allen got to first an eyelash ahead of second baseman McHugh’s throw.

Curtis and Phil Rowe plated runs with sacrifice flies for Monmouth, which avenged a 2013 Class C playoff loss at Hall-Dale.