Instead of swinging at the first pitch they saw, Dirigo hitters worked the count against St. Dom’s freshman pitcher Gavin Bates. They were rewarded with 12 walks, which helped steer the Cougars to an 11-7 victory. 

“We’re an aggressive team, a very, very aggressive team,” Dirigo coach Ryan Palmer said. “It was tough to tell the kids that we had to be patient. My kids were coming up chomping at the bit wanting to swing away, but we had to be patient. They did a good job of it.” 

Patience paid off in the third inning when the Cougars (5-1) tallied four runs and brought nine batters to the plate. Tyler Frost led off the inning with a base hit down the third-base line. Bates walked the next two batters on eight pitchers and Frost scored on a wild pitch. Nick Hall became the third straight Cougar to draw a walk, loading the bases for Gavin Hebert, who also got a free pass to first base as well as an RBI. 

“The mindset you have to have with a pitcher like that is a walk is as good as a base hit,” Dirigo senior Kaine Hutchins said. “You’re still going to get on base. You still have a chance for RBIs. In a game like that every run counts.” 

Luke Lueders drove in Anthony Todd with an RBI single to right field and Hall scored on a passed ball to give Dirigo a 5-0 lead after three innings.

Bates settled down after Lueders’ single, retiring six of the next seven batters he faced. It was the freshman’s first start on the mound in his high school career. 

“We’re short on pitching so we had to try something new and he was the one to go to,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “Not going to criticize him for a few walks. We didn’t help him in key situations with errors. If we had kept his pitch count down by making some plays, he settled in toward the latter part of the game.”

Bates threw 128 pitches in 4 1/3 innings of work.

Palmer said his team wasn’t expecting to see Bates. 

“We thought we were going to see (Ray) Mosca right from the get go,” Palmer said. “They threw Bates and we didn’t know anything about him. We got to the point where we had to be patient. He was struggling, but St. Dom’s is in a predicament right now pitching-wise. I thought he battled all right. He took one on the chin, but a gutsy performance.” 

The Saints (3-3) fought back in the fifth, getting on the board with three runs. Mitch Lorenz delivered a two-out double off the fence in right-center, plating Robert Shelley and Mosca. Lorenz came around to score on an RBI single by Caleb Labrie. 

Palmer and his team did see Mosca on the mound in the fifth. After an error in center prolonged the inning, Bates walked the next four batters to close out his night. Mosca balked in a run against the first batter he faced to give Dirigo an 8-3 lead after five. 

“Every time they score a few runs we come in and go in our huddle before we bat and say that we can’t give them that momentum and we have to get those runs back,” Hutchins said. “That’s our mindset every time they score.” 

St. Dom’s added two runs in both the sixth and seventh, but a second straight three-run inning by the Cougars proved too much to overcome. Lueders collected his second RBI in the sixth and finished 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. 

“When the strikes came we had to put them in play and see what happens,” Lueders said.

Lorenz and Labrie led the Saints with two hits and two RBIs apiece.

Hutchins picked up the win on the mound, allowing five runs on four hits over 5-plus innings. He struck out five and walked four. 

The win was a milestone one for Palmer. The fifth-year coach collected his 100th victory with the Cougars. 

“I’ve always been the type of coach where I give all the credit to the kids during a win, but anytime we lose the blame is on me,” Palmer said. “I’m not really a fan of personal stats, but every now and then a milestone will come up. I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t on my mind. I’ve been coaching a long time and I’ve been blessed with good kids.”