AUBURN — Edward Little baseball needed Nate Pushard to be the stopper Friday night.

The University of Maine at Farmington-bound senior couldn’t have performed the role much more authoritatively. Pushard spun a one-hit shutout at Austin Field, striking out four in a 5-0 shutout of Lewiston that snapped a five-game Red Eddies losing streak.

“We expect that out of him. He picked it up a notch,” EL coach Scott Annear said. “His velocity has always been there, but he had absolute command. That was fun to watch.”

And it saved the season for EL (7-8), which had crashed from third place to ninth in Class A East — the tournament bubble — in under two weeks.

The win over No. 4 Lewiston (7-7) avenged an earlier 11-1 loss and solidified a playoff spot.

“If we can get our bats going, I think we can play with a lot of teams out there,” Pushard said. “Our pitching is solid.”

He’s not kidding. Lewiston should feel equally comfortable entering the one-and-done fray in a week or so. Friday night’s duel between Pushard and Lewiston left-hander Eddie Emerson was as good as any the KVAC has produced this season.

Mike Hammond’s two-out double in the bottom of the third was the first hit for either team. Kyle Ullrich’s leadoff single in the fifth was the lone hit for Lewiston.

“Both teams have got some great kids. The baseball talent in Lewiston-Auburn is definitely solid,” Lewiston coach Dave Jordan said. “It was a great atmosphere. They struck first, and we weren’t quite able to respond.”

It was scoreless until the fifth, when Emerson’s night of 2-2 and 3-2 counts finally caught up with him.

Brandon Knapp led off with a walk. Mickey Lawrence’s sacrifice bunt moved him to second, and Corey Henderson’s sharp single to right field put runners on the corners.

Emerson struck out Hammond but walked Varney to load the bases, then went ahead of Evan Raymond 1-and-2 before issuing the go-ahead base on balls.

“That was huge. It very much was huge. To get that first man on and try to get him in to score, those were big situations,” Annear said. “Fortunately there were situations when we were in the field that we were able to erase their lead runner. Then as the game progressed we were able to get that lead runner on.”

Emerson fanned Lew Jensen with a full count — his 10th strikeout of the night — to help Lewiston temporarily escape.

“He gave it all for us out there,” Jordan said. “He didn’t have the control that I’ve seen him have before, but there were a lot of good things he did that kept us in the game.”

Drew Lashua led off the sixth with a single to end Emerson’s evening, and the floodgates opened against reliever Austin Wing.

Pushard, Knapp and Lawrence greeted Wing with consecutive singles to make it a 3-0 lead.

Hammond drew an intentional walk before Knapp scored on a wild pitch. Brandon Varney later plated Hammond with a base hit.

EL turned double plays to end the fourth and fifth innings. Pushard retired the final eight Lewiston batters, catching Matt Poulin and Emerson looking at called third strikes in the seventh.

“Throwing to a catcher like Brandon Varney is so easy. Add a great defense behind me and we just had to get a run, and we got it,” Pushard said. “It’s hard not to be emotional on a night like this. Middle innings I finally settled down and got that extra energy out, and I could just use my mechanics and throw.”

Lewiston had its best chance to score in the first inning.

Pushard hit Mike Wong with a pitch to open the game. Wong advanced to third on a pair of groundouts.

Poulin walked, but Varney threw him out trying to steal second to end the threat.

“There’s so many people to praise, but defense, they stepped up,” Annear said. “We didn’t kick it. We didn’t throw it around. We played good ball.”

Lewiston also turned a double play to get out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the fourth after Raymond singled and Lashua walked.

“I know they were in a situation where they felt their back was against the wall and they had to come up with a win,” Jordan said. “We had a little miscommunication within the game with a few opportunities that I thought helped them get some outs, and they made some real nice plays.”

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