WATERVILLE — With six North Atlantic Conference games in the next five days, Thomas College baseball coach Greg King needed to see his team start doing the little things in Tuesday’s game against cross-town rival Colby, and he needed a strong effort out of his starting pitcher, James McLamb.

King got both. The Terriers executed small ball and came up with some big two out hits against the Mules, and McLamb threw eight strong innings. The result was a 6-2 win for Thomas.

Additional Photos

MAKE THE TAG: Colby College first baseman Kevin Galvin, left, tags out Thomas College’s Thomas Cameron after jumping to save the ball from a bad thow in the fourth inning at Thomas College on Tuesday in Waterville. Staff photo by Michael G. Seamans

Colby College second baseman Tyler Starks, 1,left, loses his glove as Thomas College's Anree Benitez, 1, slides in to second base ahead of the ball on a steal in the fourth inning at Thomas College in Waterville Tuesday. Staff photo by Michael G. Seamans

“Usually in midweek games, you have to put relievers in there, guys who aren’t used to seeing a lot of innings. But our staff is pretty thin right now, so (McLamb) did a heck of a job saving the rest of the staff,” said King, whose team improves to 13-19. “He’s in the military, too. We were going to have him try and pitch this weekend, but we weren’t really sure if he’s going to be able to be there or not, so we just changed our staff around.”

A lefty, McLamb scattered four hits and walked three with three strikeouts. When these teams played in Florida last month, Colby (9-15) touched McLamb for 11 hits and three runs in 6 2/3 innings. On Tuesday, the Mules couldn’t make solid contact. Colby’s only offense came with a pair of unearned runs in the third inning.

“He was just throwing his offspeed stuff for strikes and getting ahead in the count. Our whole philosophy was to up the middle the other way and we kept topping balls,” Colby coach Dale Plummer said. “We saw this guy pitch in Florida, and we didn’t make any adjustments from the game down there. We talked about it before the game, and we couldn’t make any adjustments on him today. So shame on me.”

Added King: “(McLamb) had real good ability to locate today. They were telling us when he was warming up, his changeup was unbelievable. He got a lot of hitters out with the changeup.”

The Terriers took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth inning. After Anree Benitez and Jeff Richardson took back-to-back walks from Colby starter Lucas Geoghegan to start the inning, each advanced a base on a wild pitch. Skowhegan native Cody Vigue drove in a run with a ground out to third base, and with two out, Derek Kane singled to score Richardson for a 4-2 lead.

“We knew (Geoghegan) threw a lot of fastballs. He had a little breaker that wasn’t really breaking well. He got a couple of us on our front foot, but we just sat back on that fastball and shot it out into the field,” Vigue, who drove in two runs and scored one, said.

Colby pitchers walked seven hitters, and three of those scored.

“We got behind too many guys, walked too many guys, and gave up stolen bases. Too many free bases,” Plummer said.

In the seventh inning, Vigue double to scored Richardson, then scored on a Tom Cameron single.

“It was a fastball. It was middle-out, and that’s the pitch I always look for,” Vigue said. “Everyone came up big in certain situations.”

The Mules had chances to score late in the game, but couldn’t capitalize. Over the last four innings, Colby stranded seven runners on base, and left the bases loaded in the ninth when Cameron got Jake Kramer to fly out to center to end the game.

“We can’t wait until late,” Plummer said. “We didn’t get the leadoff guy on all game long.”

Benitez scored a pair of runs for Thomas, and Kane had three hits. Nate Ellis had two hits and drove in a run for Colby.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

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