By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Edward Little shortstop David Lutz should have been the first out in the bottom of the third inning.

With Tyler Dorris standing on first base, Lutz skied a pitch straight up, just to the right of the foul line along the first-base side at Pettengill Park.

Morse catcher Kevin Hutchinson’s stab at the ball looked more like he was a frightened matador feigning a true run at a bull, and the ball dropped harmlessly foul.

Two pitches later, Lutz broke open a 4-2 game with a towering home run over the left-field fence, shifting the momentum back in the Red Eddies’ favor on their way to a 12-5 win over the Shipbuilders.

“It was a fastball,” said Lutz. “I just seemed to get a hold of it. Especially with two strikes on me, I was just trying to get a piece of the ball, trying to make contact.”

Lutz finished a triple shy of a cycle, connecting for a single in the first, a double in the fourth and another single in the sixth. He also scored three runs, stole a base and finished with three RBI.

“He’s been coming along well,” said EL coach Scott Annear. “I’ve been working with him a lot to make some adjustments to that swing, and I think in batting practice before the game today he really seemed to get it. The green light went on, I could see it, and you saw the result.”

Morse, meanwhile, didn’t help its own cause in the field, committing six errors in six innings, including two in the sixth that led to four unearned runs.

“All of our pitching today was young,” said Morse coach Chris Wallace. “They are sophomores that threw strikes and our fielders needed to make plays behind then, and they didn’t make those plays.”

One of those errors, a throw that drew first-baseman Steve Hall off the bag, may have been more costly than all of the others. On his way to first base, Chris Merrill of Edward Little, while still running in the basepath, clipped Hall’s glove and bent it backward, hand and all. Wallace said after the game that it appeared to be broken.

The Eddies, meanwhile, surrendered two runs in the top of the first, but scored three in the bottom of the opening frame to take the lead for good.

After another run in the second, Lutz’s home run in the third broke open the game. The Shipbuilders threatened once more with a three-run spurt in the top of the fifth as EL starting pitcher Adam Redman started to tire, but EL put them away in the sixth with four unearned runs.

Kevin Pontbriand also had four hits for EL (6-3), going 4-for-5 with a double and two infield hits, and Tyler Dorris was on base three times and scored each time. Matt Nadeau had a double, two RBI and a run scored, and Derek Doucette came in to pitch the sixth and seventh innings in relief, striking out four and allowing no runs.

Riley Walker led Morse with two doubles and a walk. The Shipbuilders finished with just five hits, all by the top four hitters in the lineup, while EL had 13 and had every hitter reach base at least once.