SACO — After throwing 110 pitches in Monday’s 5-4 win over Portland, Thornton Academy senior Matt Rutherford easily could have struggled when he was called upon to start again just three days later against Sanford.

If anything, the senior only got stronger as the game went along ”“ just ask the Spartans.

Rutherford, a crafty left-hander, relied upon his off-speed stuff to great effect Friday, keeping Sanford hitters off-balance all game as he allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out eight to lead the Golden Trojans to a 4-1 win in an SMAA baseball game at a soggy Thornton Academy Field.

Rutherford, forced into working again this week due to the Trojans (4-3) playing four games in five days, retired the last nine batters he faced Friday, showing few signs of fatigue as his pitch count grew.

“I felt good, even on Tuesday, and my arm has always been quick to recover, so that wasn’t an issue,” Rutherford said. “It was just get a good warm-up in, make sure the arm is loose and get ready to go. I had more confidence as the game went on and that really helped.”

It was the third complete game in four days for the Thornton pitching staff, which allowed nine runs in the four games this week, as the Trojans went 3-1. That allowed coach Ray Petit to use just three pitchers ”“ Rutherford, Drew Gelinas and Ben Lambert ”“ to throw a combined 27 innings this week and keep his rotation fresh heading forward.

“They did a great job this week,” Petit said, adding of Rutherford: “He’s pretty durable and I put him in a tough situation, but when you play four games in one week that happens. We were lucky to get that out of him this week.”

On the other side, Sanford (3-3) starter Eddie Michetti was hurt by errors behind him in each of the first two innings as the Spartans feel behind 2-0 quickly.

In the first, with the runners on second and third and two outs, Michetti induced Thornton five-hole hitter Alex Fallon into a can-of-corn pop-up to left field. But Dan Almquist lost the ball in the drizzle and let it drop off his glove, allowing Ben Lambert to trot home.

Michetti worked his way out of the inning without any further damage, and with one out, runners on first and second in the second, looked to have induced an inning-ending double play ball off the bat of Lambert. But shortstop Jimmy Parks instead went to third and threw the ball away, allowing another unearned run to come home.

Thornton made it 3-0 in the fourth on Ryder Kenney’s RBI single, and the Trojans got another unearned run in the fifth when a hot shot to third off of Rutherford’s bat with two outs was fielded nicely by Michetti ”“ relieved in the fourth by James Roche ”“ only for his throw to pull first baseman Jed Scott off the bag, allowing Fallon to score from third.

“We got ourselves behind and we’re not a team that’s going to put up a bunch of runs,” Sanford coach Mark Boissonneault said. “We can’t afford to give away outs, and the past couple of games we have been. We gave up three unearned today, yesterday (in a 10-2 loss to Westbrook) we let up 10 runs with eight unearned; we can’t do that.

“Coming into this season, we thought defense was probably going to be our strength, and the last few games it just hasn’t been.”

Those defensive lapses were all that Rutherford needed to put the game away, as he didn’t allow the Sanford lineup a base runner after the fourth, when the Spartans got runners to third and first with two outs after a well-executed hit-and-run by Roche.

But a nice Rutherford pickoff move saw Roche get hung up between first and second, and despite a long-enough rundown that allowed Chase Eldredge to score, it was the last time a Spartans runner reached base, as Rutherford showed impressive control as the game wore into the later innings.

“I’ve worked awfully hard in the offseason to get that control and it really paid off today,” Rutherford said. “They did a good job of getting me into deep counts, so I tried to get ahead early and throw the off-speed stuff to get them on the front foot, and then come back with the hard stuff inside to really jam them. Because on a day like today, no one likes to hit.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.