WESTBROOK — It was so close, the Thornton baseball team could taste it.

The bases are loaded. It’s the bottom of the seventh with two outs, only a lone out away from upsetting one of the top high school teams in Southern Maine. The kind of situation every baseball player yearns to be in.

But the ringing of the ping off Scott Heath’s bat meant certain doom for the Golden Trojans. Two runs scored, and the Trojans walked off the sloppy ballfield in Westbrook on the wrong end of the 4-3 score.

The Blue Blazes comeback came off the heels of a strong performance by Thornton pitcher Jeff Gelinas. A freshman, Gelinas, in his first varsity start, threw a no-hitter through five innings, before giving up two runs in the sixth inning on an inopportune slip in the outfield to put Westbrook back into contention.

Gelinas finished giving up two hits, as well as three strikeouts.

Thornton Academy head coach Greg Paradis had no concerns of sending the freshman out against Westbrook.

“He’s got a very good mentality for it,” Paradis said. “He’s very calm, cool and collected. Not a lot of things get him riled up. Sometimes, our pitching coach [says] ”˜He doesn’t have a pulse.’ He was at 88 or 90 pitches in the last inning. He missed his last start due to the weather in preseason so we only got him up to 80 pitches in preseason. In this weather, it’s cold, it’s rainy. I didn’t want to take a chance, and he started getting all over the place a little bit in the sixth inning and put a couple of guys on.”

Gelinas did not do it all on his own, however. Through his five hitless innings, the Trojans played stellar defense, including a diving catch on a line drive by leftfielder Alex Jacques in the third, and a diving stop on a ground ball in the fourth inning by shortstop Sam Canales.

Thornton scored its first run in the first inning, when Jacques scored on a pitch that skipped away from Westbrook catcher Tom Lemay. Jacques scored again on yet another passed ball in the third inning, and Canales would score in the fifth on an RBI groundout by pinch hitter Matt Turnage.

With Zach Gardiner and Heath on base, Westbrook designated hitter Sean Murphy smacked a line drive to Jacques in left field. The ball would have been caught, but the elements caused Jacques to slip on the grass in outfield, resulting in the ball rolling to the wall and two runs to score, bringing the game to 3-2.

Sophomore pitcher Jack Kenney came in to close the game in the seventh for Thornton. Westbrook pitcher Matt Weimer reached on a walk to start the inning, and two batters later pinch hitter Joe Quinlan reached base on an error.

“(Kenney) throws a boatload of strikes,” Paradis said. “He’s going to make guys earn it, and that’s what they did. We should have been out of the game with the play at third base. I feel bad for Jack, because that would have been a nice save for him.”

Another two batters later, Gardiner reached base on an infield single, setting the stage for Heath to smack a Kenney fastball to center field to seal the win for the Blue Blazes.

Paradis was proud of the way his team performed.

“They played great,” Paradis said of his squad. “I think we’ve got a good baseball team with players that have played together for a while. I know we’re under everyone’s radar and that’s fine by me. We pitch well, we play defense very well. Both teams were effected by the elements. We saw a couple of passed balls early where we scored two [runs]. Our leftfielder slipping out in the field, and I’m sure the ball wasn’t dry when Ryan Leach made that throw over to first base. Those things happen, and we’re a fairly young team. We’ve got sophomores and freshman on the mound today. It stings, I would of liked to have win, that would have been a nice win early in the season.”

The Trojans (1-1) will try to get back on the winning track Thursday against South Portland.

— Contact Staff Writer Dave Dyer at 282-1535, Ext. 318.