The final week of the American Legion baseball season is always a bit chaotic as teams try to squeeze in all their games before the start of zone tournaments.

Gardiner’s busy stretch drive in Zone 2 got off to a wild start on Sunday with a doubleheader sweep of Augusta, including a come-from-behind walkoff win in the first game.

“We’d talked about needing to make a run in the final week, and they were sitting pretty high in the standings, so that’s a big sweep for us,” Gardiner coach Dan Burdin said.

Trailing 5-4 in the seventh inning of the opener, Gardiner tied the game when an Augusta outfielder misplayed Kyle Fletcher’s fly ball. Fletcher ended up on third, representing the tying run.

Augusta elected to walk the next batter, Dalton Therrien, and with good reason. Therrien was 4-for-4 in the game with two doubles. From the third bases coach’s box, Burdin made sure Fletcher stayed on his toes.

Unlike high school baseball, where teams can simply declare that they want to intentionally walk a batter and he gets a free pass to first base without a pitch being thrown, pitchers are required to make the four pitches in Legion ball. This time, it was to Gardiner’s benefit.

“They threw a wild pitch on the fourth pitch and we ended up winning,” Burdin said.

Gardiner took the momentum from that one win and jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first inning of the nightcap en route to an 8-3 victory to complete the sweep. Along with Saturday’s sweep of Highland Green of Topsham, it improved from 4-5 to 8-5 in two days. It’s just one game behind Augusta and Pastime Club of Lewiston for third place in the Zone 2 standings with five games to play.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Gardiner was hoping for a wild pitch any time it got a runner on base, because that was often the only way it could score.

“We struggled early getting guys in. We had 27 left on base in three games,” Burdin said. “We finally started getting some of those hits with runners in scoring position and with two outs.”

Oak Hill alum Brady Dion, who homered in the game two victory, has given the offense a much-needed boost lately, Burdin said.

“Our pitching’s been pretty good all season. It’s just been a matter of getting run support,” Burdin said.

This week, Gardiner has one game with Bethel and two apiece with Brunswick and Pastime scheduled. Saturday’s doubleheader with Pastime could decide who has home field advantage in the first round of the zone tournament next week if the two teams stay in the 4 vs. 5 matchup.

The top eight teams make the tournament in Zone 2, which begins next Tuesday.

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Augusta played the Gardiner doubleheader and swept Saturday’s twinbill against Smith-Tobey of Bath with just 10 of 18 players available. Among the missing were two of its tops players, Mitchell Caron and Tayler Carrier, who are at training camp for the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl and will miss the final week of the regular season.

“And Mitchell’s been killing the ball, too,” Augusta coach Tim Rodrigue said. “We’ve played seven games in five days in the heat and my kids are worn out. We’ve got five games this week, and it’s a toss-up who can be there for those games between jobs and everything else. It’s a grind.”

The grind doesn’t let up for the final week of the season, either. Starting Tuesday, Rodrigue’s team plays five games in five days.

“We’ve got three right in a row (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), and there are no cakewalks,” he said.

Indeed, Augusta plays Franklin County of Farmington (10-3), then unbeaten Bessey Motors (12-0) of South Paris on Wednesday and perennial contender Pastime Club (9-4) on Thursday.

It will be a tough stretch, but Augusta can make some major headway if it gets hot this week. It is currently tied for third place with Pastime and sits one game behind Franklin County for second. Bessey and the top seeding in the tournament are likely out of reach.

Rodrigue is pleased with how his team has defended and pitched this season. Last week, Justin Rodrigue, his son, came within one out of a no-hitter in a 3-1 win over Bethel/Locke Mills.

“We’ve had a lot of close games,” Rodrigue said. “Our defense has been really stellar. Offensively, we just haven’t seemed to hit our groove yet.”

Rodrigue said Caron, Carrier and Kolbe Merfeld have swung the most consistent bats for Augusta, which finishes the season by hosting Highland Green in a doubleheader on Saturday.

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Zone 1 wraps up its regular season a week from Monday, with the top six teams making the zone tournament. Messalonskee Post 51 boosted its chances of clinching a spot with a doubleheader sweep of the RTD (Madison) 39ers on Sunday, 3-0 and 12-7. Post 51 improved to 8-4 and moved into a tie for third place with Hampden and Motor City. Jared Cunningham, Zach Mathieu, Adam Littlefield and Devin Warren were the offensive stars. RTD, which was led by D.J. Allen’s four singles, remains in the sixth spot and has games with the teams trying to catch it for the final playoff spot — Waldo Country, Mid-Coast and Penquis — this week… Franklin County suffered the most heartbreaking doubleheader sweep of any team this season, losing both games Saturday to unbeaten Bessey Motors 4-3 in walkoff fashion. The Flyers have single games with Rogers Post and Augusta and a doubleheader with Bethel/Locke Mills remaining on the schedule…Tri-Town of Poland’s Kaleb Bridgham was named the Zone 2 Player of the Week after hitting .533 with two home runs and posting six innings of one-hit, one-walk relief work.

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33