SACO — Many times in baseball, walks and errors will kill you.

On Tuesday, Thornton Academy used both ”“ along with a one-hit gem of a pitching performance from Ben Lambert ”“ to bludgeon Windham in the teams’ mutual regular-season finale, taking advantage of two walks and three key errors to score four unearned runs on the way to a 4-0 victory in an SMAA game at the Thornton Academy baseball field.

Thornton ends its regular season at 8-7-1, and will play Cheverus in the Western Class A preliminary round next Tuesday.

Lambert allowed just two base runners all game, one on a first-inning error and the other on a Spencer Hodge single in the fifth inning, while striking out seven as he kept the Eagles off-balance with a fastball-curveball combination.

The sophomore hadn’t started since a May 22 win against Bonny Eagle, but pitched five innings of shutout relief in the Golden Trojans’ 14-inning tie against Scarborough last Tuesday. That form carried over a week later as he needed just 81 pitches to go the distance and improve to 3-3 on the season.

“He threw really well,” Thornton coach Ray Petit said. “He came in in that 14-inning game against Scarborough and was lights out, and it just carried over.

“He did an outstanding job of changing their high level ”“ he’d go up high and then come down with his curveball, and they seemed to chase that high fastball a lot, and he’s got enough velocity on that to throw it by them.”

Lambert also played a key part in creating Thornton’s first two runs. He led off the first by drawing a walk against Windham (7-9) starter Hodge, stole second and made it to third when Alex Fallon’s grounder to shortstop was misplayed by Tyler Johnson, later scoring on Matt Rutherford’s sacrifice fly.

Lambert then again led off the third with a walk and stole second, making it to third on an overthrow and coming home on Evan Wright’s double.

“I know that there’s kids behind me who can hit in me in, so when coach gives me the steal sign, I just took off,” Lambert said. “We got the overthrow, and I was able to take third and score.”

Thornton got two more insurance runs later in the third thanks to another Eagles’ error. With runners on second and third and two outs, Drew Lavigne hit a soft grounder to second baseman Tanner Laberge that looked destined to be out three. But Laberge bobbled the ball and then threw it well to the right of first baseman Tim Greenlaw, allowing Wright and Rutherford to trot home and make it 4-0.

“We took advantage of their errors, and we were pretty clean defensively,” Petit said. “Usually, for us, it’s been the reverse.”

The four runs were more than enough for Lambert as he continued to cruise. Hodge’s single up the middle to lead off the fifth was the one minor hiccup, but after a fly out and a force out at second, Lambert got some help from his defense as catcher Brandon Hall made a quick throw down to first to pick off Josh Dugas, the last runner who would reach base for the Eagles.

“My defense helped me out a lot,” Lambert said. “I threw a lot of high pitches that they chased, and then I could come back with the curveball to get them out. My arm felt great today.”

Thornton will now have a week off before facing Cheverus in the opening playoff round. The Trojans will play York in an exhibition on Friday at The Ballpark in Old Orchard Beach.

Lambert said a good deal of that time would be spent on getting used to a few new positions in the field and at the plate after starting shortstop Ryder Kenney was hit in the face with a pitch against South Portland last Saturday, ruling him out for the rest of the season with facial fractures.

That forced Fallon to move from third base to shortstop Tuesday, with Lavigne playing at third base and Wright moving up from the fifth spot in the order to take over in the two-hole vacated by Kenney.

“That was hard for us, because Ryder’s a major player and bats second in the order,” Lambert said. “That’s a big spot to fill, and we wanted to win this one today for his last home game.”

Petit hopes it carries over into next week, when the Trojans will try to win their first back-to-back games since victories over Sanford and Noble on May 9 and 15.

“Today was a good win for these guys, and hopefully we’ll carry this into the playoffs,” Petit said. “We’re pretty similar (to Cheverus). It’s going to come down to pitching and defense. Whoever plays better defensively is going to win that game.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].