Development, getting the players on the field to play the American pastime and having fun.

These are three of the keys that Mark Wild has in store for his first-year Brunswick Junior American Legion squad.

Thursday’s 9-3 loss to Gray-New Gloucester (1-0) at Edwards Field was a learning experience for Wild’s team, which committed three costly errors in the first two innings, leading to seven unearned runs. The loss dropped Brunswick to 2-2.

“Most of these players would have been playing Babe Ruth 15-and-under baseball, which has become quite weak in the state of Maine, with the swing going toward junior legion (24 teams this year), and Brunswick chose to use this bubble of strong players to play junior legion, a better option for these boys,” said Wild. “Letting these boys see more pitches and swing the bats is what’s important right now for their development.

“It is not about winning, and they know that, but we want to battle every inning and every pitch. These boys are still below that cusp of Senior Legion baseball, and they’re young enough to be challenged on the baseball field and learn from their mistakes.”

Just four games in, Brunswick struggled early against Gray-New Gloucester, which jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the hosts took their first swings.

With a runner on first base and two outs, Brunswick starting pitcher Charlie Lowell walked Mike Bryant and Brandon Hubbard reached on an error to load the bases and keep the inning going. A second miscue allowed two runs to score, and Andreas Kariotas blooped a two-run single into right field to complete the uprising.

“We haven’t played a lot together this season, and having no postseason experience in the high school season this year, these boys haven’t really played baseball for a while coming into junior legion,” said Wild.

Brunswick answered with one run in the home half of the first inning, with Lowell dropping an RBI single into left field to score Parker Wild, who had earlier walked.

A second tough one

The visitors put up three more unearned runs in the second frame. Thomas Wood, the No. 9 hitter, walked, stole second, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a Lowell wild pitch. Tyler Credit ripped a two-out double, while Bryant reached on Brunswick’s third of four errors. Hubbard’s two-run single upped Gray-NG’s lead to 7-1.

Bryant started for Gray-NG, going the first three innings with one strikeout, three walks and four hits allowed. Brunswick added a run off the hurler in the second when Cam Heatley scored on a balk.

Both teams pushed a run across in the fourth. Tyler St. Pierre drove a Lowell pitch to the left-center-field gap for a standup triple. He scored on a suicide squeeze bunt by Credit, the only earned run Lowell permitted in his four innings of work (five hits, one strikeout, two walks, one earned run).

Brunswick answered with an RBI infield single by John Parker, scoring Bobby Lewis.

“We started to play baseball after the first two innings,” said coach Wild. “The goal is for these boys to one day be playing senior American Legion baseball. Strong 15s and some 16s will play Junior Legion, rather than ride the pine at senior legion. It is definitely a growing process.”

Cam Berry pitched the final three innings for Brunswick on two hits and one walk. Hubbard and St. Pierre combined to pitch four innings for Gray-NG on two strikeouts, four walks and three hits.