OLD ORCHARD BEACH — The Kennebunk American Legion baseball team’s season ended with a thud Saturday afternoon at The Ballpark. Needing to beat Zone 2 runner-up Gardiner to advance to next week’s Legion state tournament, Kennebunk ended up on the wrong end of dominant performance by Gardiner starting pitcher Josh Martin. Martin struck out nine batters and allowed just two hits in Gardiner’s 2-0 win.

Martin got the Kennebunk bats off balance from the get-go, striking out six of the first nine batters he faced.

“High fastballs. Couldn’t lay off them today, for everyone,” said Kennebunk starter Nick Emmons about what made Martin effective.

Emmons had a strong outing as well, but ran into trouble in the first inning. After getting two quick outs, Emmons walked Jimmy Theriault. Theriault stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch. After Emmons walked Dennis Meehan on a 3-2 pitch, he gave up an RBI single to Spencer Allen. Meehan and Allen both stole bases to put themselves into scoring position, but Emmons got out of the jam by getting Mike Phelps to pop out to first to end the inning.

“I had to keep the ball low. The first inning I left it a little high, and they got a few hits off that and scored a run,” said Emmons.

Emmons didn’t allow another hit until the seventh, when he gave up singles to Brady Dion and Jensen Orewiler that knocked him out of the game. Taylor Landry came on in relief and gave up an RBI single to Kyle Fletcher.

When Kennebunk was able to connect with a pitch from Martin it ended up right at a fielder more times than not. Kennebunk never put more than one baserunner on in any inning, and only put a man in scoring position in the fourth, when Tom Snow made it to third. Kennebunk had the worst luck in the seventh, when Emmons’ liner was caught by a leaping Meehan on what looked to be a sure-fire single. Later in the inning, with a man on first, Caleb Burpee hit a ball to the left field corner that just barely looped foul. Burpee then flew out to center to end the inning.

“It was a tough way to end (the season), but it was a good game. We played well, and I’m proud of the kids,” said Kennebunk coach Bob Nutter. “We hung in their and gave ourselves chances. We had great pitching by Emmons and Landry, but we just couldn’t come up with a big hit.”

Although their season ended earlier than they would have liked, Nutter and his team had a tough time hanging their heads. After getting off to a slow start, they found a rhythm and played like one of the better teams in Zone 5. They gave Zone 5 champion Fayette-Staples fits in the regular season and put themselves in position to win on Saturday.

“Beginning of the year, we didn’t know if we had the pitching to get this far. The young kids came through. It was an outstanding year, and I’m very proud of them,” said Nutter.

— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323.