It isn’t every day that your starting pitcher goes more than eight innings in a game, striking out 13 batters in the process, while limiting the opponent to five hits, and still comes out on the short end.

For Freeport pitcher Peter Lamagna, Wednesday’s Western Maine Conference game against Lake Region went exactly that way, as Lakers’ pitchers Charlie McDonough and Gunner Harriman combined for a no-hitter that gave their team a 3-0 victory in nine innings.

“He pitched awesome,” Falcons (4-7) head coach Bill Ridge said after the game. “I just said to him that ‘if you throw eight scoreless innings than you should never lose.’ That’s on us for not getting that win for him, he threw well enough to get a win.”

“Our defense has been stepping up game after game,” Lakers (3-9) coach Randy Heath said. “We’ve been in tough situations over and over and the guys are starting to mesh and they’re trusting each other and they’re making plays. Our pitcher (McDonough) has made a few outings this year. He shut down Falmouth, he’s been performing ever since and the guys are responding to that more than anything.”

It was a classic pitchers duel, with the first five innings taking less than 45 minutes to complete. Lamagna saw the minimum through the first five, including striking out the side in the fifth inning. Meanwhile, McDonough (five innings, three strikeouts) forced three Falcons to be stranded on base through the first three, and even retired the side on just three pitches in the fourth.

Freeport’s first chance at scoring came in the bottom of the third when Caleb Rice reached first after the third strike slipped to the backstop. Joe Burke dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move Rice over to second and a chopper down the third base line by Max Doughty, which resulted in a fielding error, pushed Rice to third.

Doughty advanced to second on a wild pitch, but on the next play the Lakers ended the threat when they caught Rice in between third and home on a slow roller to first by Jack Davenport.

Lake Region eventually got a runner past first base in the sixth inning when Nate Smith walked and stole second. He trotted into third on a ground out to shortstop, but Lamagna served up his ninth strikeout, a ground out and a fly out to end the inning.

“Their pitcher was unbelievable,” Heath said about Lamagna. “It was a great defensive game. A lot of credit to (Lamagna), he really battled with us. I have kids over .450 and .375 in batting average, so he did a really great job at shutting us down. He kept us off-balance.”

Lamagna also got out of jams in the following two innings, striking out the last two hitters with runners on second and third in the seventh, and retiring three in a row after Smith reached second in the eighth.

The Falcons had a chance to end it in the home half of the seventh. Colby Wagner drew a five-pitch walk to lead it off and stole second to get into scoring position. With one out, Bennett Hight ripped a hard ground ball to shortstop, but Wagner had broken for third and collided with Hight’s grounder, forcing him out via offensive interference.

In the top of the ninth, the Lakers were able to put it together. Harriman led off with a walk and advanced to second on a single to left by Adam Butler. After a missed tag on a fielder’s choice attempt, the Lakers loaded the bases with no outs. Damon Wright chopped a pitch to shortstop, but a throw that went slightly high to home allowed Harriman to score.

Butler and Jordan Williams came into score on the next play, a ground-rule double to straight-away center by Nick Wandishin, making it 3-0.

Despite two walks in the bottom half of the ninth, Harriman kept the Falcons off the board to seal the victory.

“This should be a wakeup call,” Ridge said. “This is our third straight loss. The first two were ‘good’ losses, but this is a bad loss that should wake us up. We have been talking about how we need to go on a little run now and it’s a game later than we planned on doing that. We have Poland on Friday (4 p.m.) and we’re bringing everything we can with them.”

Lake Region 3, Freeport 0

Charlie McDonough, Gunner Harriman (6) and Jordan Williams; Peter Lamagna, Nathaniel Cyr (9) and Colby Wagner. Double — (LR) Nick Wandishin. Repeat hitters — (LR) Adam Butler. Records — Lake Region 3-9, Freeport 4-7. Up next for the Falcons — Friday at Poland, 4 p.m.