By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Edward Little went into Tuesday’s Eastern Class A baseball preliminary against rival Lewiston with one goal in mind.

Survive and move on.

The fifth-seeded Red Eddies survived a 1-0 squeaker with the 12th-seeded Blue Devils before a big bi-partisan crown at Pettengill Park, and now they move on to face No. 4 Brunswick in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Brian Erickson’s seeing-eye single up the middle in the first inning scored Kevin Pontbriand with the game’s only run. Kyle Giguere made it stand up, out-dueling Lewiston’s Luke Potter by limiting the Blue Devils to just four hits and allowing only two runners as far as second base.

“It doesn’t get any better than beating Lewiston,” said Giguere, who struck out seven and walked two in a complete game effort. “I was a little bit nervous starting the game off, but I settled down little by little and once the sixth inning came around, I was feeling comfortable. That was the thing, I just kept my cool.”

Indeed, whether he was pitching or fielding, Giguere kept his cool on a steamy day. He had only one 1-2-3 inning, the sixth, but the Devils only got runners as far as second base in the first and seventh innings. He got out of a two-on, two-out jam in the first by fanning Brian Nason, then stranded the potential tying run at second in the seventh by striking out Nate Gruz swinging.

“It wasn’t his best game, but he kept battling,” said EL coach Scott Annear.

Giguere avoided further trouble in the fourth when, with a man on first and two out, he deflected a hot smash back to the box by Nick Langlais, quickly recovered and threw him out at first.

“I pretty much closed my eyes on that one,” Giguere said. “It got away from me a little bit and I stuck with it and got him.”

“We hit a couple of balls hard today, but right at someone,” said Lewiston coach Don King. “We could have used one or two of those.”

With Gruz on first in the fifth, Giguere tried to field a sacrifice bunt attempt that was popped up toward the mound. He took his eye off it and dropped it, but still had time to throw to second to nab Gruz, who had no choice but to hold up on the ball.

Potter (six innings, six hits, one K, two walks) didn’t have to use his glove as much as his counterpart, but he did have to work out of even more trouble and ended up stranding 10 EL baserunners. He pitched his way out of two bases loaded situations and a two-on, one out jam in the fourth.

“That could be the best job he’s done all year because he got in some jams and had to work his way out of them,” King said. “He had to pitch today.”

The Eddies (12-5) scratched across the deciding run when Pontbriand led off the first by beating a throw in the dirt to first base. He then stole second and came around to score when Erickson’s dribbler skipped through the middle of the infield.

“I don’t think anybody ever expects that first run to hold up,” Annear said. “Our whole thought was maybe this can get us on a roll. We started today saying Be scrappy. Be tough. Put pressure on them.’ It’s part of that whole “Survive and move on” thing we’ve been talking about.”

The Devils finished their season 8-9 after making their first non-open tournament playoff appearance in 13 years. Chances are good they won’t have to wait that long to make another showing because they’re losing only four seniors.

“I’m really proud of the kids. They started in a 1-4 hole and came back and made the playoffs. They did a great job,” King said.