FREEPORT – York pitcher Chris Cole admitted to being nervous for the first couple innings Thursday in a baseball opener against Freeport.

After all, Cole, a senior three-sport athlete, was playing in his first competition of the school year.

Cole broke his right ankle during preseason in football, preventing him from playing quarterback. He sat out the basketball season because he wanted to make sure his ankle healed, and because baseball is his best sport.

So after getting rid of the jitters, Cole settled down and pitched one-hit ball the rest of the way, striking out nine as the Wildcats beat Freeport 4-2 in eight innings in a Western Maine Conference game.

Cole finished with a four-hitter.

While other Western Maine Conference games were postponed because of wet conditions, the Freeport field was remarkably dry despite heavy rain Wednesday.

The game started out in temperatures that were pushing 60 degrees but quickly dropped as the wind started to blow, making it a typical spring day for baseball.

The score was tied 2-2 after the regulation seven innings, but York scored two runs in the top of the eighth on a wild pitch by Freeport left-hander Spencer Egan.

Zach Leal scored from third base, and when the ball deflected off the backstop and bounded away from home plate, Ben Lawlor kept running and scored from second.

Freeport got its lead runner on because of an outfield error in the bottom of the eighth, but he was erased when the Wildcats turned a double play.

The next batter reached second on a throwing error and moved to third on a passed ball, but Cole got the final out on a grounder.

“I was real nervous at the start,” said Cole, who will play for the University of Southern Maine next season. “The only pitches I threw were my slider and two-seam fastball. We didn’t have a preseason game, so I’m far from midseason form. My ankle is 100 percent. It feels great.”

Freeport hit the ball sharply in the first two innings and scored in each of them.

Cole had two strikeouts in the third, fourth and sixth innings, and struck out the side in the seventh.

“Chris was coming out after the eighth inning,” said York Coach Tony Robinson. “His pitch count was pretty low for the game, but he had certainly pitched enough.”

Robinson didn’t have to make the move because the Wildcats got their second and third hitters on with one out in the eighth and moved them around without a hit.

Cole scored in the first on a delayed double steal, then ripped an RBI single to right in the third.

Egan was definitely the hard-luck loser. He relieved fellow left-hander Josh Weirich in the fourth inning and matched Cole in efficiency until the eighth.

After walking the first batter he faced, Egan struck out the next three. He allowed one hit and struck out seven in five innings.

“He pitched very well,” said Freeport Coach Hank Ogilby.

Staff Writer Tom Chard can be contacted at 791-6419 or at:

tchard@pressherald.com