AUBURN — The best Mitch Lorenz is a rested one.  

Thrown into a short recovery cycle and pitted against everyone else’s ace for much of the season, St. Dom’s senior lefthander hadn’t enjoyed the zip, the command or the wins everyone expected this season.

It was all there Monday, when Lorenz took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before settling for a two-hit shutout in a 5-0 MVC baseball victory over Mountain Valley.

“Today was more of a day where I took control like I used to,” Lorenz said. “It was the first day of the season I felt really good on the mound. I’ve got my confidence back.”

St. Dom’s (7-4) won its fourth consecutive game.

Lorenz struck out 10, walked only one and stranded Falcons at second and third base in both the first and seventh innings. Tom Marshall and J.T. Greene each singled in the seventh for Mountain Valley (5-5).

The Saints were without the other half of their senior one-two mound punch, Mike Bryant, for the first half of spring due to a lower-body injury. Out of necessity, Lorenz made multiple starts on the minimum three full days’ rest.

He was on a Wednesday-to-Monday cycle this time, and the benefits of the extra day were evident both in the pop on Lorenz’s fastball and the location of his curve, slider and change-up.

“This is as good as Mitch has been all year,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “The big thing that I saw was when he wanted a little extra on his fastball, he was able to rear back. We hadn’t seen that the last couple starts. I think we kind of taxed him a little bit being short-handed on the pitching side of things.”

Mountain Valley only threatened to drop the ball in play three times prior to the seventh. Each turned into an error.

John Pepin reached to lead off the game when the shortstop lost a high pop-up in the sun and mishandled while retreating into left field. Ian Austin also got aboard on a bobbled grounder, but Lorenz escaped with a lazy fly ball and two strikeouts.

Lorenz mishandled Tucker Rowland’s bunt with one out in the fifth.

“This was close to the most complete game we’ve had this year,” Blackman said. “The difference is in the games before, those errors have come back to sting us.”

Gavin Bates and Ryan Harvey each had two hits for the Saints, who amassed six against four Mountain Valley pitchers.

Harvey drove in two runs. Ray Mosca singled, stole three bases and scored three times. Mountain Valley ace Tim Fitzgerald departed with a 3-0 deficit after the third frame.

“I didn’t think we played that badly,” Mountain Valley coach Steve LaPointe said. “We just ran into a buzz saw on the pitcher’s mound.”

Bates reached on an error in the second inning. He stole second and scored on Harvey’s single to center.

St. Dom’s loaded the bases with none out in the third when Mosca singled, Fitzgerald grazed Bryant with a curve that got away, and Lorenz walked. Caleb Labrie made it 2-0 on a fielder’s choice. Harvey later lofted a sacrifice fly.

“It’s all starting to click now,” Lorenz said. “More of everything is clicking together each game, so hopefully it keeps going that way.”

Bryant singled home Mosca in the fourth against Austin. Mosca’s leadoff walk and swipe of second led to an unearned run off Jacob Beauchesne after a two-out error in the sixth.

Nick Newman worked a scoreless fifth for the Falcons.

“We’re in a rough stretch of our schedule, and we’ve said just enjoy the ride. Wherever it takes us, it takes us,” LaPointe said. “We’ve got to get that signature win. We don’t have that yet.”

Lorenz struggled to locate his secondary pitches as he closed on the 100-pitch mark in the seventh. Marshall worked the count to 3-2 and fouled off another offering before hoisting a low line drive into shallow left.

“I was definitely tiring, but I wanted that no-hitter,” Lorenz said. “The off-speed kind of went away, so I had to go with my fastball, and they just ended up getting around on it.”

koakes@sunjournal.com