Mountain Valley’s Will Bean slides safely into home plate as Spruce Mountain’s Bryson Bailey tries to put the tag on him during Friday’s game at St. Dominic Academy. Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi 

AUBURN — Mountain Valley baseball coach Steve Lapointe said a season opener doesn’t usually end up being a masterpiece that will be remembered as the game of the season. 

For him and the Falcons, openers are a chance to work out the kinks and focus on areas of the game that need improving — especially after a dismal, cold Maine spring. But the Falcons had no problem at the plate, pounding out a 12-hit attack and shaking off stubborn Spruce Mountain 13-3 in a six-inning game after the 10-run rule was implemented at St. Dominic Academy on Friday afternoon.

“You know, the first game of the year is never a work of art. It is never a work of art,” Lapointe said. “There are a lot of things to work on, but, you know, we are excited to be on a field. We are excited and thankful to be on a field. 

“We hadn’t been out, yet. We went (out) one day and hit a few fly balls on the softball field — other than that, we have been in the gym the whole time.”

The inclement weather aside, Lapointe wants his pitchers to get it done on the mound.

“Pitching-wise, we have to throw more strikes,” he said. “We have to throw more strikes. We stressed all preseason one of your first two pitches have to be a strike. We were behind a lot of hitters. We threw a lot pitches. We have to bring that down a little bit.

“Other than that, offensively, we weren’t that bad. Base running was good. We have a couple of seniors on vacation, but you know what I thought, I am pleased with them. We hit the ball pretty well at times.”

There was no pitchers’ duel between the teams in this Mountain Valley Conference opener.

The Falcons used four pitchers to shelve the feisty Phoenix. Mountain Valley summoned Fischer Cormier to the mound for the final out. Starter Cam Godbois got the win on the mound after going two innings before leaving the mound with a 7-1 lead in good hands with his teammates.

The Phoenix called upon three pitchers to stave off the Falcons, and starting pitcher Bryson Bailey took the loss. Spruce Mountain mustered only three hits in the game.

The Falcons launched a four-run outburst in the top of the first inning when shortstop Fischer Cormier and Will Bean reached base with back-to-back singles. Third baseman Garrett Gabarini got on with error in the outfield. All three scored thanks to that error and Godbois’ deep fly to right field. First baseman Ethan Laubauskas got a walk and came home on center fielder Anthony Mazza’s double to make it a 4-0 game.

Cormier had five hits for Mountain Valley, and Bean and Mazza had two each.

Spruce Mountain got a run in the second inning when Logan Moffett scored after Connor Beaulieu got on due to an error at shortstop and Parker Beaulieu flied out to right.

The Falcons scored another three runs in the third inning and Spruce Mountain responded with one in the bottom half.

But Mountain Valley piled up five runs in the fourth inning thanks to five walks, one hit and when Bean was hit by a pitch. Bean and Laubauskas each scored three runs in the game.

With the Phoenix holding a 12-2 lead going into the fifth inning with a chance to go home early, but Moffatt ripped a one-run double, scoring Bailey, who got on with a walk.

Mountain Valley, though, sealed the victory in the sixth inning when Bean came home with a third run. In the bottom half, the Falcons called on Cormier with two outs, after Spruce loaded the bases, for the final out.

“They are a very good team — a very good hitting team,” Spruce Mountain coach David Frey said. “I thought we did very well. We made some good contact, hit the ball well, had some costly mistakes at the beginning there, opened it up, but other than that we battled.

“That’s all I can ask for (in) the first game of the year.”

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