YARMOUTH — Gibson Harnett didn’t mind Monday’s wet, clammy weather.

In fact, the Yarmouth pitcher thrived on it.

“I knew it was a crappy day out and the rain was coming,” said Harnett. “I knew I was going to get a lot of movement on my off-speeds because of the rain. I knew I had to point my fastball to the bottom of the order, and my team did a great job of backing me up.”

Harnett allowed just four hits to lead the Clippers to a 2-1 win against Gray-New Gloucester.

“He’s the only kid (on our roster) who has ever pitched at the varsity level before this season, so he stepped up like the varsity starter that we needed today,” Yarmouth Coach Marc Halsted said.

Harnett, a right-hander, struck out eight, walked one and hit a batter.

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“He stayed ahead,” Halsted said. “He competed with two strikes. He competed on 3-1 counts really effectively for us. That’s exactly what you want out of a senior, your captain, the only returning pitcher. That’s great leadership.”

Harnett had to be in command because he didn’t get much offensive support.

The Clippers (4-2) had nine base runners in scoring position in the first five innings, but only two of them scored.

“That’s what we’ve been struggling with,” Harnett said. “We’ve left a lot of runners in scoring position.”

Yarmouth finished with a season-high 10 hits but left 10 men on base. The Clippers have yet to score more than four runs in a game.

“We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve only had three hits, four hits or five hits,” Halsted said. “Today, we had a good day at the plate. We didn’t score any runs, but it was a step in the right direction.”

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The Clippers opened the scoring in the first. Luke Waeldner led off with a double down the left-field line, the first of his three hits. Chris Romano followed with a single to right for a 1-0 lead but was thrown out by a great relay throw from second baseman Zach Mann while trying to advance to third after his hit bounced over the head of right fielder Nicholas Chandler.

Yarmouth made it 2-0 in the fourth. James Waaler reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to second on Nate Dealaman’s single. After a double steal, John Thoma dumped an RBI single into center.

The Patriots (3-4) scored in the sixth.

Nick McCann, the leadoff batter, reached on a dropped third strike, went to third on Jacob Winchester’s single to deep left and scored on William Shufelt’s sacrifice fly to left.

Harnett retired the final six batters.

“I told my guys we had nothing to be ashamed about,” GNG Coach Brad Smith said. “It was a well-played ballgame, (but) we don’t beat too many people scoring just one run. That’s been our bugaboo all year long. We don’t produce runs.”

All of Gray-New Gloucester’s losses have been by three runs or fewer.

“We get solid pitching. We get solid defense. In some cases, that should be good enough to hold the lead, but we’ve got to get the lead in the first place,” said Smith. “It’s that third phase we’ve got to kick in.”


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