NEWPORT — With an exception here or there, there always seems to be that one inning in which the Messalonskee baseball team goes berserk at the plate.

On Friday, it was the second inning. The Eagles erupted for 11 runs on eight hits as part of a 16-5 mercy-rule victory over Nokomis in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference cross-class showdown.

“They were throwing the ball in the zone, and we were aggressive,” said Messalonskee head coach Eric Palin. “If there’s one criticism I have of our offense, it’s that we’ve gotten off to slow starts, but today, we got it going early.”

Messalonskee registered 17 hits as a team en route to its largest offensive output and margin of victory this season. Eleven different players recorded hits for the Eagles with Michael Achorn smacking three singles and Ty Bernier, Cash Bizier, Jordan Lewis and Jayme Wheeler notching two each.

Messalonskee (6-2) plated an early run in the first inning as Bernier singled to center, stole second and advanced to third on the throw before crossing home plate on a wild pitch. Wheeler struck out a pair for the Eagles in the bottom of the frame.

That set the stage for a second inning that blew the game wide open. Messalonskee batted around twice, sending 18 batters to the plate to turn a 1-0 advantage into a 12-run ballgame in a half-inning that lasted nearly a half-hour.

“The boys got hot,” Bernier said. “We were seeing fastballs well, we got some good hits, and we just got going. … Everyone gets going, the dugout gets going, and the boys get going. It’s just really fun, and we keep it going, build off each other and score a lot of runs.”

Messalonskee, which plays in Class A North, stretched the lead to 15-0 in the top of the third before Class B Nokomis (3-4) finally came across with three runs in the bottom half. The Warriors answered another run by the Eagles with two of their own in the fourth, but those runs were mere consolation prizes in the lopsided Messalonskee win.

Wheeler got the win for Messalonskee, striking out six, walking four and allowing zero hits in three innings. Lewis relieved him in the fourth and allowed two runs on two hits before Bizier finished things off with two strikeouts in the fifth. Jacob Bubar (1 1/3 innings pitched, nine earned runs) took the loss for Nokomis.

The win marked the sixth time this season that Messalonskee, now averaging 8.3 runs per game, has scored six or more. The Eagles entered the game batting .340 as a team, a number that will only go up after their most prolific performance of the 2024 campaign. One of the few missteps was a 14-1 loss to Skowhegan on April 22.

“You take out that Skowhegan game, and we’ve really been clicking all year,” Palin said. “I think we can stand up against anybody in Class A if we can minimize errors; we just have to keep fighting and keep playing hard.”

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