CUMBERLAND — Right-handers Bailey Train and Will Bryant collaborated on a five-hitter to lead Greely to a 12-5 win over Kennebunk in a Western Maine Conference baseball game Friday afternoon.

The Rangers (2-0) roughed up three pitchers for 13 hits. Bryant threw 32/3 innings of two-hit scoreless relief for the win.

“Will Bryant did a real nice job of coming in, just pounding the mitt, throwing strikes,” Greely Coach Derek Soule said.

Train and Bryant recorded a total of 14 strikeouts.

“We have a lot of hard throwers on the team, and it’s not unusual to get double digits in strikeouts, but we really have to limit the walks. There’s really no reason why we should have given up five runs today,” said Soule.

The Rams (0-2) scored all their runs off Train; two were unearned. “Early in the game, we gave them some runs with some walks, some passed balls, but we settled in,” Soule said.

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Kennebunk kept the game close until the bottom of the sixth, when the Rangers erupted for six runs.

“I was proud of our guys hanging in there for five or six innings,” Kennebunk Coach Brian Dill said.

“(The game) just got away from us at the end, but we know we’re going to get better as we get going forward.”

Losing pitcher Eric Aiken had a difficult time keeping the first four hitters in Greely’s lineup off the bases. Mike Shields, Sam Porter, Train and Mike McDevitt collected 10 of the Rangers’ 13 hits.

“It’s a very experienced top of the order,” Soule said. “We have a lot of physically strong kids who are experienced.”

Shields, the leadoff hitter, had four singles, stole two bases, scored three runs and knocked in a run. Porter hit a one-out single to start the sixth-inning rally. Train belted a two-run homer in the sixth and finished with three hits and four RBI.

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McDevitt smacked a two-run double to make it 6-5 in the fourth.

“They make you pay when you don’t make plays and they get guys on base,” Dill said.

Soule was pleased with the way Greely’s hitters handled Aiken’s off-speed pitches.

“Sometimes, those type of pitchers have given us trouble, but the guys did a nice job of adjusting to that style,” he said. “I was pleased with how (our hitters) really stayed back on the breaking pitches.

“We’ve always been a good fastball-hitting team, but it was really good to see how they stayed back and hit some breaking pitches real hard.”

Pinch-hitters Joe Saffran and Corey Brink hit back-to-back RBI doubles for Greely in the sixth inning.

Jack Lapham singled twice for Kennebunk.


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