Once the Cape Elizabeth bats got going, the Freeport Falcons didn’t stand a chance.

The Capers scored nine runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 10-run lead and trigger the mercy rule for an 11-1 win on Friday in Western Maine Conference baseball action at Cape Elizabeth High School.

The Capers improved to 1-1 while Freeport, coming off a 26-0 loss to Greely on Thursday, fell to 0-3.

Cape broke a 2-1 game wide open in the home half of the fifth, sending 13 batters to the plate. The first five hitters reached with base hits and the onslaught was aided by several Freeport errors and four wild pitches from Falcons starter Bejay Perkins, who had allowed seven hits but only two runs through four innings.

“We faced (Perkins) last year and did pretty well, so we had a pretty good idea of what we were going to see,” said Cape starting pitcher Ryan Boyington, who allowed only three hits and a run in a five-inning complete game. “It just took a little while to get things going. The first time through (the order), you just get used to him. Second time through, it’s a lot easier to see (the pitches).”

Boyington consistently got ahead of the Freeport hitters. He struck out two and kept most of the plays in the infield for his fielders.

“The fielders did a nice job,” Boyington said.

Capers coach Chris Hayward was pleased with his starter’s effort.

“Ryan looked good on the mound,” Hayward said. “He’s a strike machine. He works quick, he has a high strike percentage and he can change speeds well, so generally the defense plays well behind him because he keeps things moving.”

Cape went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first on Adam Danielson’s sacrifice fly, which scored Kyle Piscopo, who had reached on a single. Joey Stratis had an RBI single in the second inning to score Jon Klages for the lone Freeport run, tying the game at 1-1.

Cape squandered a golden opportunity to take the lead in the third inning when Piscopo, Zach Breed and Andrew Guay all singled to start things off. Guay’s hit got past the Freeport center fielder and Breed headed for third, but Piscopo had held there. With Breed caught between second and third, Piscopo headed home, where he was thrown out. Breed safely reached third and Guay advanced to second, but Perkins struck out the next two batters to escape the inning.

“We made some mistakes early,” Hayward said. “We ran into some outs that we shouldn’t have run into. We got a couple hits in each of the first few innings. We got a lot of men on base, we just didn’t push them across early.”

Will Pierce gave the Capers a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning when he led off with a single, advanced to second on Ezra Wolfinger’s single, stole third, then came home on a wild pitch.

After Boyington sent the Falcons down in order in the top of the fifth, Guay, Danielson, Sam St. Germain, Boyington and Pierce all singled to start the bottom of the inning. Wolfinger reached on an error before Matt Rand hit into a fielder’s choice for the first out. Guay and Danielson each scored twice in the inning.

“Andrew Guay and (Adam Danielson) had good days at the plate,” Hayward said. “We got men on base and we played small ball. We played it well. Things that we’ve worked on worked today. It’s good to see some growth. We had a lot of good two strike at-bats.”

Cape finished with 15 hits, eight coming in the fifth inning. Guay and Piscopo had three hits apiece.

“It’s a good way to get a win,” Boyington said. “That’s the biggest thing for us, scoring runs. So to get nine runs in one inning is just a really good thing.”