GRAY — Jordan Brown allowed three hits and 10th-seeded Yarmouth came through with clutch hits Tuesday to defeat seventh-ranked Gray-New Gloucester 5-3 in a Western Class B baseball prelim.

The Clippers (9-9), who broke a 3-3 tie with two runs in the top of the seventh inning, will play fourth-seeded Greely (12-4) in a regional quarterfinal Thursday at Cumberland.

Brown, a right-hander who struck out eight, walked one and hit a batter, retired the last 11 batters.

He didn’t allow a ball to be hit out of the infield in the final three innings.

“I just got motivated because it was a close game and I really wanted to win, so I dug down and pitched my hardest,” Brown said. “I tried keeping them off balance (by) not throwing the same pitches to the same batters.”

Yarmouth collected 10 hits off Tyler St. Pierre, who had scattered six hits May 5 in a 4-1 victory against the Clippers.

“We kept putting balls in play,” Brown said. “It was one of the best hitting games we’ve had all year, just good contact, solid hits.

“It comes down to getting hits when it really matters and at the end of the game we really did that.”

Luke Klenda started the winning rally with his third hit of the game with one out in the seventh.

Pinch-runner Ben Pineo went to second on a wild pitch, moved to third when Thomas Wood made a diving catch on Brown’s fly ball, then scored when first baseman J.T. Magno booted Caleb Pineo’s grounder.

Jack Snyder and Ryan Nason followed with singles to produce the final run of the game for Yarmouth.

The Patriots (9-8) made the most of their chances, leaving only one runner on, but Brown didn’t give them many chances to manufacture runs.

“You need baserunners on base to score and we just didn’t get many,” Gray-New Gloucester Coach Brad Smith said.

“We like to play small ball but if you’re not hitting the ball, you have to find another way to generate some runs and we didn’t.”

The Clippers took a 1-0 lead when Cody Cook was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, stole second, then scored on C.J. Cawley’s opposite-field single to right.

The Patriots made it 1-1 in the bottom of the first. St. Pierre led off with a walk and scored on catcher Ryan Nason’s throwing error after stealing two bases.

The Clippers took a 2-1 lead in the third. With two outs, Klenda pulled a single to shallow right-center and Brown was hit by a pitch. Both runners scored when Caleb Pineo slammed a double into a gap in left, but Brown, who was limping noticeably as he rounded the bases, was ruled out on appeal after failing to touch third.

The Patriots took a 3-2 lead in the fourth. Justin McKenna and Magno singled to put runners at the corners with one out. After Magno stole second, McKenna scored on a wild pitch.

Brandon Hubbard drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to right.

The Clippers made it 3-3 in the fifth. Cawley, Connor Lainey and Klenda began the inning with consecutive singles, and the run then scored on Caleb Pineo’s grounder.

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