LEWISTON – Mike Connolly knew what to expect Friday afternoon.

 The Bowdoin College baseball coach also knew stranger things can happen when you put a big game in the hands of a young pitcher. Connolly and his Polar Bears team got no surprises from freshman Christian Martin.

 The Lake Bluff, Ill. native produced the kind of game Connolly hoped for in an 8-3 win over Bates at Leahey Field.

 “He threw great, but he also competed great for a freshman in his first league start,” said Connolly. “To come out on a Friday and throw the ball that way says a lot about his character. He pitched outstanding. He set the tone.”

Martin scattered six hits through eight innings of work. He struck out six and walked just two. Coming into the game, Martin had gone 2-1 in four starts with a 3.96 earned run average and a team-leading 31 strikeouts.

 “That’s what I expected,” said Connolly. “That’s how he’s pitched. That’s how he’s thrown the ball for us this year. The only other factor was the added importance of it being one of 12 conference games. I expected that, but sometimes 18-year-old kids can surprise us.”

Bates (6-11) only had one inning in which it got more than one hit. The Bobcats produced three hits in the fifth to cut the lead to, 6-2, but Bates could only get two more hits the rest of the way.

 “I think their pitcher did an outstanding job at keeping our guys off balance a little bit,” said Bates coach Mike Leonard. “We couldn’t put one of those big streaks together to get a bunch of runs.”

Bowdoin, on the other hand, was able to do just that. The Polar Bears had multiple hits and runs in three different innings, including a pair of two-out hits that opened the lead both times.

 “They just executed a little bit better than us,” said Leonard. “They got some hits when they needed them. They put people on and were able to drive them in.”

Dan Findley and Joe Comizio each drove in two runs . Jorden Edgett, Brendan Garner and Brett Gorman each plated a run. Garner also had three hits and scored three times.

 “The game flew by,” said Martin. “It seemed like they were getting outs quickly, and we were getting outs quickly. Then the fourth and fifth innings, we lit up the scoreboard. From there it was pretty much the game.”

Bates starter Karl Alexander matched Martin in the early going. Each team had just one hit and no runs through the first three innings.

 “It was 0-0 all the way around,” said Martin. “That’s the game when you really have to focus and try not to make any mistakes. As soon as we got runs, I knew I could just throw strikes.”

In the fourth, Alexander started to struggled. A fielder’s choice, a hit batter and a walk loaded the bases with two outs. Comizio stepped up and drilled the first pitch he saw for a two-run single.

Bowdoin (10-5) followed that up with four more in the fifth. Edgett, Garner and Gorman each drove in a run and another scored on an error to build a 6-0 lead. That ended Alexander’s day, and Bates used four different pitchers in relief the rest of the game.

“I thought our kids made adjustments the second time around and we had the two runs in the fourth and four in the fifth because we were able to adjust on what he was doing against us,” said Connolly, whose team was coming off two straight losses to Amherst.

Bates got two back in the bottom of the fifth when two runs scored on a Ryan Sonberg single and subsequent error in the outfield. Then in the sixth, Noah Lynd hit a solo homer to cut it to 6-3. It was Lynd’s 19th of his career, putting him in a three-way tie for second on the all-time home run list at Bates.

 “I left a fastball down the middle and left a changeup down the middle,” said Martin. “Those were really my only two mistakes. After that, I felt good. I felt good with my location. We were getting outs and making the plays.”

Bowdoin added to the lead in the seventh. Findley had an outstanding at-bat. He fouled off pitch after pitch before doubling in a pair to make it 8-3.

 “6-3 isn’t super comfortable at that point,” said Connolly. “That two-out hit by Findlay was a really big swing.”

Bates will host Bowdoin again Saturday in a doubleheader, starting at noon. The games were originally scheduled to be played at Bowdoin, but the Polar Bears field isn’t playable.

“I was happy with the way our guys came back,” said Leonard. “I thought they did a nice job of battling. They stayed together really nice. We kept coming to play nine innings but we just didn’t come out on top in nine innings.”

kmills@sunjournal.com