SOUTH PORTLAND—Post 86 United kept close to Staples Crossing in the early going at Wainwright Sports Complex on Saturday afternoon, June 30, but swiftly fell behind and never recovered as the game moved progressed. 10-3 the final.

Post 86 consists of players from Yarmouth, Freeport, Gray-New Gloucester, Cheverus, Greely and Edward Little, while the Staples roster boasts gentlemen from Traip, Marshwood and Noble.

Staples logged four runs in their first ups: Hitters one through four – Trevor Chase (Marshwood), Jack Cahill (Marshwood), Shane MacNeill (Traip) and Hunter Sawtelle (Traip) – all scored, with Chase reaching base on a walk, Cahill on a single, MacNeill on an error at third and Sawtelle on another walk.

“We fell behind,” Post 86 head coach Glen Cyr said. “We were down 4-0 in the first inning; they had hits; there was also an error. Our starting pitcher, Damien Pye (G-NG), threw 50 pitches in the first inning. So we didn’t get off to a good start.”

“But he settled down,” Cyr said of Pye, “he did a good job, coming in the middle innings. He just wasn’t getting his fastball over for strikes to start; he was high. He was dropping his elbow. I talked to him after he came back in the dugout. I needed him to pitch as long as he could, because we have a double header, and we only have so many kids to pitch today.”

Worth noting: Barely enough Post 86ers were available to play that day. The team narrowly avoided forfeiting, and found themselves cobbling together as effective a lineup as they could – not an uncommon problem for summer ball.

“I had 12 guys scheduled to play,” Cyr said; “unfortunately, I only had 10. And my starting pitcher I had to move to catcher to start. That kind of messed up the routine at the beginning, so I think that was an effect on us.”

Post 86 picked up two runs in the first, keeping themselves respectably close to Staples. Luke Miller (Greely) and Wade Sansone (Greely) both singled in the stretch, and ultimately scored.

From there, however, Staples pulled away, scoring two (Cahill and Alex Baker, also of Marshwood) in the second, three (Jake Farnham of Traip, Adam Doyon of Marshwood and Trevor Salema of Traip) in the fifth, and one (MacNeill) in the sixth.

Meanwhile, Post 86 added just one more – the team ushered Will Neleski (Greely) ‘round in the third – before falling silent for the afternoon.

“The kids got off to a tough start,” Cyr said, “so they didn’t have the motivation – they were a little down. I was trying to get ‘em up. We got three runs, which I was proud of. They were scrappy. It was 6-3 and we had a chance; unfortunately, about the fifth inning, Staples blew it open. They had about three or four more runs, and at that point, I’ve got to save pitching for game two.”

It’s the first time the two teams have met this season.

“We were 3-3 and three before we started today,” Cyr said. “So now we’re 3-4. We have a game at 5:30 today; we’re playing against Post 202 out of [Topsham]. We played them once already, had a good game against them. We’re looking forward to it. So we’re 3-4, but we’re confident we can get back to even after today.”

Adam Birt can be reached at abirt@keepmecurrent.com. Follow him on Twitter: @CurrentSportsME.

Damien Pye (G-NG) opened game on the mound for Post 86.

Zack Mann (G-NG) mans second base for Post 86.

Copy the Story Link