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SKOWHEGAN — There were few hits in a relatively high-scoring opener between the Skowhegan and Brunswick baseball teams. Instead, patience — and taking advantage of mistakes — made the difference.

The River Hawks scored the final five runs to win the first official game on their new field, 8-6 over the Dragons in a Class A North battle. Here are five takeaways from the game.

Patience (and opportunism) is a virtue

Patient batters were willing to let pitchers navigate tight strike zones, and both pitching staffs showed jitters. The result? Runs were scored primarily on walks, wild pitches, passed balls and errors.

Skowhegan pitchers walked eight batters, threw six wild pitches and hit two batters, leading to six Brunswick runs on just three hits. Brunswick’s biggest inning, a three-run fifth, came without a hit.

Brunswick pitchers returned the favor, walking seven batters. Four of those were in the bottom of the sixth, when Skowhegan scored two runs to take the lead. The Dragons also had two wild pitches, two passed balls and three errors.

New field puts pressure on pitchers and catchers

When wild pitches and passed balls did happen, the results were more disastrous than usual. Because of the amount of space between home plate and the backstop, balls that got past the catcher usually meant an automatic run when a runner was on third.

“Even you and I could (score) on that if that ball gets past,” said Skowhegan coach Peter Kirby. “That’s one thing about this field: It’s so big that it changes the game, really. We’ve got a huge foul territory, especially with the space to the backstop.”

Trent Austin, defense seal the win

One pitcher who was dealing Tuesday was Trent Austin. Pitching in the first game of his career, the freshman delivered 2 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, striking out three and getting out of a jam in the fifth as Brunswick loaded the bases.

With Skowhegan clinging to an 8-6 lead in the seventh, Austin’s fielders had his back. The River Hawks got two putouts on hard-hit balls, including a nice snag of a line drive by Jack Fitzpatrick at second. Then, Jason Aubin fielded a tough ground ball at third and threw across his body for the final out.

“Being a freshman, there’s a lot of pressure, but it feels great to get the win,” Austin said. “The energy coming into this game was great. … I was just really focused on throwing it in there, letting them hit it and letting my guys make plays. (The job they did behind me) was awesome.”

New-look Brunswick handles learning curve

Both coaches, Skowhegan’s Kirby and Brunswick’s Matt Aceto, were happy with their teams’ resilience in a hard-fought opener. Although Aceto’s Dragons didn’t pull out the win, he took away plenty of positives.

A team that’s replacing its top five hitters from last year, Brunswick must look to new sources for runs. Six of them against a Skowhegan team that could be toward the top of Class A North is a good start, and Aceto is confident his pitching staff will come together.

“I’m really proud of this team; there’s a lot of fight in them, and they didn’t give up and fought to the end,” Aceto said. “Going forward, our pitching will carry us, we’ll clean up the walks, and our defense will be better.”

Stat leaders

Brunswick: Allan Swain (5 IP, 7 K, 3 BB, 5 ER), Sam Mullen (1B, 2 SB), Ben Hogan (2B, RBI)

Skowhegan: Jason Aubin (1B, 3 RBI), Trevor Austin (2B, 2 RBI), Trent Austin (2 1/3 IP, 2 K, 1 HA, 0 ER, W)