AUBURN – In a virtual must-win situation to extend its season, Mt. Blue encountered a bad omen early in Tuesday’s KVAC clash with Edward Little.

Cougars’ coach Craig Collins hurt his calf when he stepped in a hole in the third base coaches box while waving a runner home in the first inning. Unfortunately for the Cougars, Edward Little’s powerful offense and pitcher Cody Goddard never came close to stumbling.

Goddard threw five strong innings to improve his record to 6-0 and Shawn Hird led the Eddies’ deep lineup by driving in three runs as EL clobbered Mt. Blue, 11-1, in a five-inning, mercy-ruled game at Pettengill Park.

The Eddies (12-3) clubbed 10 hits, half of them for extra bases. All nine starters reached base, seven via at least one hit. Josh Mains had a pair of doubles and scored a run, Kaleb Davis a double and two runs batted in and Rory Flynn added a triple and a run.

“The only hiccup (in the lineup) was Shane (Ciriello), who was rough the first three games. But he’s pulled it together and has the highest batting average on the team,” said Goddard, who helped his own cause with an RBI single in the third. “One through nine, anybody could hit any pitcher, I believe.”

“I’ve seen the teams in the (KVAC) North. I haven’t seen the teams in the South. They are the best hitting team in Eastern Class A baseball,” said Collins, who spent most of the day sitting with his leg elevated next to the Cougar dugout. “They hit better than Brewer. They hit better than anybody up north.”

Mt. Blue entered the week holding the 11th and final playoff spot in Eastern A, but Monday’s loss to Lawrence allowed the Bulldogs to leap frog them for the last berth. With the loss to EL, they needed Skowhegan to beat Lewiston and Leavitt to beat Nokomis Tuesday to still have a shot at extending their season, according to Collins.

Collins was the Cougars’ first casualty before EL pounded Mt. Blue’s pitching. He stepped in a hole in the coaches box and heard a “pop” while sending Tim Smith home on an Alec Wallace (two hits) double that gave the Cougars (7-9) a 1-0 lead.

Cougar starter Dylan Vining gave up a leadoff double to Mains in the bottom of the first but wiggled out of the jam when Mains was caught stealing third.

It was a temporary stay of execution, however, as the Eddies plated three in the second on Hird’s two-run double and Davis’ RBI infield single.

“I’d been in a slump for a while,” said Hird, the Eddies’ DH and No. 8 hitter Tuesday. “It was actually all confidence. I was in a slump in the beginning of the season and then got out of it, then got back into one. I just was confident up at the plate today.”

The Eddies chased Vining with five in the third, sparked again by Hird with an RBI single, Davis’ RBI double and Goddard’s run-scoring single. The Cougars helped out with two errors, a wild pitch and a passed ball.

Goddard (three hits, seven Ks, one walk) settled down after the first. He gave up two hits but still faced the minimum number of batters in innings two through five because he picked off two Cougars at first.

“I’d never picked anybody off in my whole high school career, so to get two in one game …” Goddard said. “Coach (Darren Hartley) told me they had a couple of great hitters on their team and I’ve never seen them play, so I had to go through and see what they had the first time,”

EL invoked the mercy rule with three runs in the fifth off reliever Jimmy Neal. The first two runs scored on an error, then Ciriello ended the contest with an RBI single.