DIXFIELD – Levi Hutchins didn’t need to be reminded the importance of getting an insurance run or two across the plate in Dirigo’s half of the sixth inning. The only reminder he needed was standing 60 feet, six inches away.

Justin Staires had already homered twice to help keep Mountain Valley within a run of the Cougars, and the Falcons’ slugger was due up again in the seventh inning. Before that, though, he was summoned to the mound with two on and none out to face Hutchins and keep the game close.

Staires quickly got Hutchins into an 0-2 hole, only to have the Dirigo left fielder battle back and work the count full. Then Hutchins turned on a 3-2 fastball and lifted it over Harlow Park’s short porch in right field for a three-run homer that ultimately proved the difference in Dirigo’s 8-5 win.

“I was expecting curve ball (on the 0-2) pitch and he gave me curve ball, and it was a ball. Then I pretty much was waiting for the next strike but he didn’t give me one until the 3-2 pitch,” Hutchins said. “This is a big win Heal Points-wise for us.”

James Moulton rapped three singles and drove in a pair of runs while Aaron Fenstermacher picked up the win in relief for the Cougars (9-1). Staires had three hits and drove in three runs and Alex Gagnon also homered in Mountain Valley’s first loss of the season (7-1).

“We obviously have a great rivalry being so close together,” Dirigo coach Dave Lafleur said. “We’ve had some battles. They beat us on a walk-off home run in ’06 and then we won the MVC championship against them, and they beat us in a 10-inning affair last year.”

The rivals went back and forth through the first five innings Friday. The Cougars touched Falcons starter Matt Laubauskas for a run in the first on Moulton’s RBI single. The Falcons answered back loudly in the second when Staires blasted a 3-1 offering from Dirigo starter Jon Smith an estimatated 380 feet, over the fence in left and across the street, to make it 2-1. Gagnon hit Smith’s next pitch about 125 feet shorter, but to the best part of the park to do that, right field, and it was suddenly 3-1 MV.

Dirigo got the lead back, with a little help, in the bottom of the second. A Hutchins single and three walks tied it, then two passed balls brought the third and fourth Cougar runs across.

“We had that rough inning. The walks hurt,” Mountain Valley coach Steve LaPointe said. “Matt battled. He didn’t have his best stuff today, but he battled, and he gave us a chance to win it.”

Their chances improved when Laubauskas greeted Fenstermacher with a single to start the fifth, then Staires clubbed a 1-1 pitch out of the yard to right to tie the game again. Fenstermacher held the Falcons at bay long enough after that, thanks in part to some stellar defense at shortstop by Smith, while Moulton put the Cougars in front for good with a two-out single in the bottom of the fifth.

“Dirigo’s defense is unbelievable,” LaPointe said. “Their shortstops, and Dakota (Holmquist) was great down at third. They throw strikes and they make you put the ball in play.”

Hutchins’ homer proved valuable in the seventh, when the Falcons threatened against Fenstermacher. Cody McPherson hit a leadoff double and Laubauskas walked to bring up Staires, who the Cougars elected to intentionally walk even though it brought Gagnon to the plate representing the tying run. Fenstermacher buckled down and got Gagnon to fly out to left. McPherson scored on Keith Brennick’s ground out to second, but Fenstermacher fanned Nate Woods to close it.