LEWISTON — Lewiston stayed alive in the Little League Baseball 11-12-year-old state tournament Thursday with a 10-3 win over Cumberland/North Yarmouth.

Lewiston bounced back from Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to York.

Lewiston will face York at 5:30 p.m. Friday. If it wins, it will meet York again at 10 a.m. Saturday for a spot in the New England tournament.

Lewiston Coach Jim Caron used four pitchers in the win, as planned.

“It went close to script,” Caron said. “We know we are deep pitching and we have thrown the same three or four guys all tournament so there were some guys we wanted to get some reps from. Joe (Dube) and Jeffrey (Randall) aren’t available (Friday) but we had some other guys. Dylan Blue was everything we knew he was going to be. He came in and threw strikes, he has a really good breaking ball and pitches to contact and that’s what he did.”

Blue pitched the final two innings and gave up one run. His performance earned him the player of the game award given by the opposing team.

Lewiston’s Ethan Blue led off the game with a double and scored off Jeffrey Randall’s single.

In the bottom of the inning, starting pitcher Mike Caron retired Cumberland/North Yarmouth in short order in his only inning before taking over at catcher.

In the second, Dube bounced back from his hitless performance in Lewiston’s loss against York with a towering three-run home run to left-center field to make it 4-0.

“He’s a big kid and at the end of the day, Dube is 12,” Jim Caron said. “At the end of the day, you’re a 12-year-old boy, there’s a lot of stress on him. Today was a good day for him and he smoked that ball. That was amazing.”

Dube then got out of a bases loaded, one-out jam without giving up a run in the bottom of the second.

Lewiston tacked on two more runs in the third when Mike Caron singled and Ian Allen walked to get on base. A stolen base and two wild pitches scored Mike Caron and Allen was pushed home on a Dylan Whitlow single to make it 6-0.

Cumberland/North Yarmouth got two runs back in the bottom of the inning. Ezra McDuffie was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and went to third after a wild pitch and stolen base. Two batters later, Asa Giffune walked and stole second.

Andrew Padgett then drilled a 1-1 pitch into the outfield for a two-run single.

“Our team’s been in the state tournament the last two years so they kind of understood what it’s about, understand the competition and understand they did well,” Cumberland/North Yarmouth Coach Mark Piesik said. “They’re already happy with what they did, they did a good job.”

Lewiston pulled away in the sixth inning. Mike Caron came to the plate with Dube and Randall on base after Cam Morin scored on Randall’s single and drilled a home run to center field for a 10-2 lead.

“We’ve been working on that swing, doing some things differently and the last couple of games he’s been hitting the ball again,” Jim Caron said. “He’s stroking. We’ve been talking about staying back and he’s not the biggest kid on the team but he’s strong. He made the adjustments. And that’s one thing we’ve talked about as a team, a lot of teams can hear the adjustments but our boys make them.”

In the sixth, McDuffie singled in Liam Coull, who had tripled for Cumberland/North Yarmouth.

After the game, the Cumberland/North Yarmouth team applauded the fans and ran a lap around the field.

“I’ve been coaching All-Stars for a long time and that group of parents, coaches and kids represent what Little League is all about,” Jim Caron said. “They just lost a game and they’re running around and playing. I use them as an example for my kids. They took their moment coming to states and from our barbecue, to opening ceremonies, to sticking around, they get all the credit.”

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