SOUTH PORTLAND – The American Legion baseball season came to an end Monday for Morrill Post of South Portland, as the team fell in the Zone 4 tournament 17-1 to Andrews Post.

Morrill (10-11) had its bats go silent just a day after finding its offense in a big way. On Sunday, Seventh-seeded Morrill totaled 20 hits and rode eight strong innings from starting pitcher Matt DiBiase to beat No. 6 Moody’s Collision of Gorham 14-2 in an elimination game at Wainwright Field. It was the first time Morrill (10-10) had gotten the better of Moody’s (9-11) this season, having dropped both regular-season contests.

The 20 hits matched the number of times Morrill hitters had struck out in their first-round loss against second-seeded First Title Saturday. The quick reversal, in a game that was win or go home for good, pleased Morrill coach Mike Owens.

“It was nice,” Owens said of his team’s offensive output. “When they come, they come in bunches.”

Though the Morrill bats would later explode, Moody’s starter Damon Wallace held them at bay for the first four innings as the game remained scoreless heading into the fifth.

But Morrill was finally able to string hits together the next two innings, pushing across single runs in the fifth and sixth on an Evan Indorf single and a Dillon Burns sac fly.

“We were struggling early, we were getting guys on but just couldn’t get that hit to get them in,” Owens said. “But we knew if we just kept plugging away and getting nice swings they’d start falling.”

After not allowing a hit until the fifth, DiBiase ran into his only bit of trouble in the sixth, when Moody’s loaded the bases with one out. But he got Wallace to ground into a force play at second and then Evan Amell to ground out to third to escape the inning allowing just one run.

“That was a very big moment,” Moody’s coach Chuck Nadeau said of the sixth-inning jam. “That was probably the turning point.”

It was the decisive moment because the floodgates then opened. Morrill added two more runs in the seventh against a tiring Wallace, and then five more in both the eighth and ninth to turn the once-close game into a blowout.

Nick Whitten was the star of stars for Morrill, totaling four hits and three RBIs, while his fellow leadoff man Nate Peasley was the only repeat hitter for Moody’s as DiBiase allowed just the one run on five hits, striking out five.

In a tournament that sees nine-inning games, as opposed to the usual seven-inning contests, on consecutive days, having his pitcher be able to last deep into the game was a major bonus for Owens.

“It’s huge, in these nine-inning games especially. Even though it’s only two innings it changes the strategy,” he said. “So to have a guy be able to go eight, it helps a lot and we feel pretty good depth wise with our pitching staff.”

While the loss ended Moody’s Legion season, the win extended Morrill’s to Monday, when they faced fifth-seeded Andrews Post of Portland at Wainwright in another elimination game at 4:30 p.m.

The teams had split their regular season contests, and Owens said he was expecting a tough game.

“They’re an excellent team, they have a lot of athletes and very, very good pitching,” he said of Andrews. “It will be a fun rivalry game. We should be ready to go.”

Matt DiBiase of Morrill Post of South Portland, pictured here in an early-season game, pitched eight strong innings as his team beat Moody’s Collision 14-2 Sunday in an elimination game in the Zone 4 tournament.File photo
Nate Peasley was the only repeat hitter for Moody’s