AUGUSTA — Early in Thursday’s Class A North quarterfinal game, the Lewiston and Cony baseball teams each squandered some scoring chances. Each seemed content to wait for the other to make a mistake.

In the top of the fourth inning, Cony made that mistake, and Lewiston made it count.

A catchable pop foul by Damon Bossie went uncaught, and a couple pitches later, Bossie drove a single to left field. That began a six-run inning for Lewiston, in which it capitalized on five hits and a pair of Cony errors. With Brodi Farinas leading a three-man effort on the mound, Lewiston pulled away with a 7-1 win at Morton Field.

No. 5 Lewiston (10-7) will face undefeated No. 1 Oxford Hills (17-0) in the semifinals. No. 4 Cony finished 11-6.

“That’s what this game is about, adversity. We feel like we’re as good frontrunners as anybody. When things are going good for us, man, it’s going good. When it’s down, we’ve pouted a little bit,” Lewiston coach Darren Hartley said. “We’ve addressed it. We tell the kids,  ‘You’ve got to understand, this game is going to make a fool out of all of you.’ It’s a tough game, and we love it.”

Ahead 1-0 entering the fourth inning, Bossie’s single was the first of three straight hits with one out for the Blue Devils. Farinas’ RBI single made it 2-0 Lewiston, and Robert Dostie scored on an error to make it 3-0. Danny May’s single drove in another, and Owen Cox’s RBI double plated another run.

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By the end of the inning, Lewiston had scored six runs and built a 7-0 lead.

“You can’t give up eight outs in an inning and expect to win. Give them credit. They squared up some balls and they made more plays than we did today,” Cony coach Don Plourde said.

The seven-run cushion was more than enough for Farinas, who pitched five strong innings, allowing one hit and one walk with seven strikeouts.

“Pitching with the lead, you know you’ve just got to hit your spots and it will all work out,” Farinas said. “I felt great. The curveball and the fastball were my go-to’s today.”

Lewiston’s No. 3 starter, Farinas missed 19 days of the regular season with a hamstring injury, Hartley said, but showed no signs of rust.

“That’s what he does. He keeps people off balance. He’s got a great hook. He likes to throw his fastball off his curve,” Hartley said. “(Pitching is) our identity, and has been for a couple years. It’s all we preach. We want our kids to pound the strike zone. We attack the strike zone.”

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Josh Murphy came on in relief of Farinas in the sixth and allowed a solo home run to Kyle Douin for Cony’s only run. When the Rams loaded the bases with two out in the seventh, Owen Cox came on to record the final out on a ground ball to first base.

Douin started for Cony and was relived by Riley Geyer in the fourth. Douin had two of the Rams four hits.

We just didn’t put the ball in play enough. You don’t win ball games doing that. (Farinas) threw well, but at the same time, we’ve got to do a better job of putting the ball in play,” Plourde said.

Lewiston took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Nate Lyons scored on Hunter Landry’s two-out single.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

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Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

 

 

 

 

 

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