Baseball: Brandon Farinas pitches Lewiston past Edward Little

AUBURN — Brandon Farinas tossed a gem for Lewiston in its season finale against rival Edward Little on Tuesday.

The senior took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and helped the Blue Devils hold on for a 5-3 victory over the Red Eddies at Central Maine Community College.

“It was great. It was a team effort and I had good plays behind me,” Farinas said “It was a good final game of my high school career.”

Edward Little (9-7) coach Dave Jordan said Farinas earned the victory.

“He’s a competitor, he’s a tireless worker,” Jordan said. “I am friends with his family — he and his dad — I see them training all winter long at Ingersoll. He deserves as a senior to go out and pitch like that to get a win against a rival.”

Farinas induced a groundout against the first batter in the bottom of the seventh, then hit Gage Ducharme with a pitch. Drew Smith’s triple to deep right field ended Farinas’ no-hit bid. Ducharme scored on Smith’s triple, and Kade Masselli brought home Smith with a sacrifice fly, cutting Edward Little’s deficit to 5-2.

“I was a little nervous that they were going to tie it up because they are a great hitting team, and a great team all together,” Farinas said. “I am glad it worked out.”

Back-to-back singles by TJ Kramarz and Caleb Albert put runners at the corners, then Brody Keefe doubled to score Kramarz and make the score 5-3. The Eddies’ rally ended when Campbell Cassidy grounded out to end the contest.

“I thought we were in a good spot to tie it on how the kids battled,” Jordan said. “Good for them to get out of that, but we put some pressure on them at the end.”

Farinas said his sinker and curve were working throughout the contest. He allowed four hits, struck out three and walked one in the complete-game effort.

Lewiston coach Chris Reed said Farinas was efficiency early in the game was the result of throwing strikes.

“Brandon mixes a lot of things up,” Reed said. “Beyond throwing a lot of strikes, he mixes that breaking ball and change-up. He can be a handful when he’s on.”

Farinas and Edward Little starter Brady Vincent faced the minimum number of batters through the first two innings. Vincent struck out the first two batters he faced in the top of the third, but Lewiston leadoff hitter Ethan Blue singled and stole second base, then Michael Dymkoski singled up the middle to drive home Blue for the game’s first run.

Dymkoski said it was important to get the early lead against the Red Eddies, who won the teams’ first meeting, 13-3, on May 15.

“I knew we had it in us,” Dymkoski said. “They are a great team, but we have the will. I got it going and my teammates helped out. We came together and pulled it off.”

The Blue Devils (4-12) added to their lead in the top of the fifth when Dylan Whitlow worked a walk and Jayden Maynard singled. A Lonnie Thomas sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third. Vincent was then relieved by Campbell Cassidy. A fielder’s choice by Ethan Blue scored Whitlaw, and Dymkoski doubled to bring home Maynard. Michael Caron reached on an error, allowing Dymkoski to score Lewiston’s fourth run.

“I think we executed situationally,” Reed said. “We ran the bases well tonight. We picked up some stolen bases, and we got base hits when it mattered. That’s not always been the calling card for us this year.”

Jordan said that the plan heading into the game was to have both Vincent and Cassidy pitch.

“I thought Brady was pitching well, but Campbell tends to strike out a few more guys,” Jordan said. “If he could have hit his spots, maybe we get a strikeout and out of the inning. We weren’t able to get that done.”

While the offense was building a lead, Farinas was dealing. He took a perfect game into the fifth inning, but it ended when Ducharme led off the inning by reaching first on an error. Farinas got the next three batters out to keep the no-hitter going.

Farinas said he was aware of the perfect game bid heading into the fifth.

“I did know; I was a little disappointed, but that’s OK,” Farinas said. “I was more disappointed giving up runs, but I am glad I made it through. It was rough there in the seventh.”

Ethan Blue hit an RBI single in the top of the sixth to extend Lewiston’s lead to 5-0.

Edward Little now must wait until the final Heal point standings are released later this week to find out if they make the postseason, and what its seed will be. Currently, the Red Eddies sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. They are less than 10 points behind Mt. Ararat and Bangor, and about five points ahead of ninth-place Mt. Blue, which can earn a lot of points with a road win over fourth-ranked Messalonskee on Wednesday.

“We have done a lot of good things this season, we have had some big wins,” Jordan said. “I mean all the teams we are battling for those last couple of spots, we beat all three of those teams. I feel like we deserve to get in, but we are at the mercy of the Heal points now. With the schedules where not everybody has to play Class A teams — we do — it’s a matter of sitting and watching to see what people do at the end.”

Lewiston, which will miss the postseason, finishes the regular season winning four of its final five games after starting 0-11.

“We are happy with how we finished with the struggles we had early and some of the bad breaks to go along with the struggles,” Reed said. “It would have been easy to give up, and that’s not what they did.”