LEWISTON —   Lewiston lefty Corbin Hyde was willing to take his no-hitter to the mound for a ninth inning, but he was glad teammate Alex Small had other ideas.

Hyde tossed the first no-hitter of his high school career and Small delivered an RBI single over a drawn-in infield in the eighth inning to give Lewiston a thrilling 2-1 victory over Erskine at Franklin Athletic Complex on Wednesday.

“They were pitching well and we weren’t getting any hits, so I knew I had to go on the mound and shut them down like they were shutting us down,” said Hyde, who struck out 12, walked two and gave up an unearned run.

“Coach (Dave) Jordan came down from our bullpen before the game started and said, ‘I don’t want to jinx him, but that’s the best he’s ever looked (in warm-ups),” Lewiston coach Todd Cifelli said. “It’s just an incredible performance against a good lineup in a pressure-packed game. It’s one of the best high school pitching performances I’ve seen since I coached here.”

The Blue Devils (11-3) avenged a 6-1 loss to the Eagles three weeks earlier, but not before they chased Erskine’s lefty starter Tyler Belanger with Eric Soucy’s leadoff single in the eighth. Pitching for just the second time this season, Belanger allowed just two hits, a walk and only four balls to leave the infield.

“I give credit to them. They’re the better team,” Erskine coach Lars Jonassen. “We just made a mistake at the end defensively. Corbin Hyde is the best pitcher we’ve faced. (Belanger) didn’t deserve to be the losing pitcher.”

Soucy lined Belanger’s 104th pitch past a diving third baseman to start the inning. David Cusson followed with a bunt that reliever Ryan Pulver dove for and third baseman Shyler Scates fielded. That left third base uncovered as Scates made his throw to first, and a heads-up Soucy never broke stride before beating the first baseman’s throw.

“As I was turning second, I looked over and saw nobody was covering third so I just decided to take it,” Soucy said.

Small followed with a looping liner over the second baseman’s head for the win.

“I just knew I needed to perform,” Small said. “I didn’t realize it was the end of the game yet.”

“Eric squared one up and got to first. Cusson got a great bunt down. (Erskine) had a communication issue and Soucy, running with his head up, gets to third,” Cifelli said. “Alex Small does a good job of putting the ball in play. He rarely strikes out. So we had some great execution from the guys at the bottom of the order.”

Both teams pushed across unearned runs in the early innings. In Lewiston’s second, Shawn Ricker reached on an error by Scates, moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on Matt Bowen’s sacrifice bunt.

The Eagles (9-5) seemed to have Ricker dead to rights when Chris Madden couldn’t get down a suicide squeeze attempt, but Ricker miraculously avoided Scates’ tag attempt about one-third of the way between third and home. Given new life, Madden came through with a ground ball to second to send Ricker home with the game’s first run.

Hyde was perfect the first time through Erskine’s order, striking out six hitters in a row at one point. A one-out walk to John Suga in the fourth came back to haunt him, though, when a ground ball to second that Cusson thought would come up stayed down and went through the wickets, scoring Suga from second.

Erskine got just one more runner into scoring position after that against Hyde, who threw 105 pitches and allowed just two balls out of the infield all day, not counting the error.

“I was feeling pretty good, especially the first couple of innings,” Hyde said. “I was really working down the hill. Everything was working. I worked through some problems in the middle and towards the later innings I felt like I had more zip on my fastball and break on my curveball.”

Belanger was nearly as dominant after his unearned run, allowing only a two-out double to Hyde and a walk to Cusson between the third and seventh innings.

“He was a tall lefty who had movement on his ball. He shut us down,” Small said. “When we got to the righty (Pulver), we got the momentum and just turned it on.”

Lewiston faces rival Edward Little Thursday at 7 p.m. at Auburn Suburban Little League. Tickets are $3 for adults, $2 for students and $5 for the car load. The two teams will also be raising money for Coaches vs. Cancer during the game.