SACO — When Biddeford’s Nate Huot made his second career varsity start at Thornton Academy last May 10, it didn’t go well, to say the least. The sophomore gave up four runs ”“ including a mammoth homer ”“ in the first inning and was quickly lifted in the second.

Huot, however, is a much different pitcher as a junior this season. And he showed the Golden Trojans just how much he’s improved Saturday.

Throwing a changeup and sweeping curveball that gave Thornton’s lineup fits all game, Huot scattered six hits while striking out eight on the mound and drove in three runs at the plate to lead the Tigers to a 6-3 victory over the rival Trojans in an SMAA baseball game at Thornton Academy.

It was the second complete-game victory in five days for Huot ”“ who improved to a league-best 6-0 on the season to go along with a 0.74 earned run average ”“ as the streaking Tigers (11-2) won their seventh straight game, and their first against Thornton (6-6) in three years.

“I have not had good luck at this field, I can tell you that, so it feels good,” Huot said. “I just tried to find my zone and I got there.”

“He learned something from last year and he pitched much better today,” Tigers coach Keith LeBlanc said. “I thought he did a great job of using both sides of the plate and keeping them off-balance.”

Biddeford took advantage of six Trojans errors in the field by staying aggressive on the base paths all day, starting in the first inning with Kerry Crepeau on first and two outs.

A wild pitch by pitcher Drew Gelinas followed by a passed ball that got by catcher Brandon Hall moved Crepeau to third. Corey Brown then singled to center to plate Crepeau, and after another wild pitch, Huot also sent a liner into center to score Brown and make it 2-0.

“It wasn’t very clean,” Thornton coach Ray Petit said. “We didn’t execute things well and that made a difference. They took advantage of that first inning when we struggled throwing strikes, and they took advantage when we didn’t make some plays in the field.”

Thornton came back to take a 3-2 lead after four innings. Matt Rutherford got the Trojans on the board with a two-out single in the second to plate Gelinas, and Alex Fallon ripped a two-out double in the third to score Ben Lambert and tie the game at 2-2.

Evan Wright then gave Thornton its only lead of the game in the fourth, taking advantage of one of the few pitches Huot left high and over the plate and sending it over the left-field wall for the first home run of his high school career.

But Biddeford responded with three runs in the fifth by capitalizing on more Thornton miscues. After nine-hole hitter Dominick Day led off the inning with a single, he stole second and then scored when Corey Creeger’s dribbler to third was fielded by an onrushing Fallon but thrown over first baseman Evan Balzano’s head.

Gelinas followed with what looked like an important strikeout of Crepeau with a ball in the dirt, but Hall’s throw to first to complete the play hit Crepeau in the back, allowing Creeger to score from third and drawing a protest from Petit, who claimed Crepeau had been running inside the base line and should be out for interference.

“He said he thought he was in the box. It was tough,” Ray Petit said. “(Home plate umpire) Kevin Cooper is a good umpire. I had to go out to question it but I respected his judgment.”

The mistake ended up hurting the Trojans as Crepeau stole second and then scored when Huot pounded a two-out double into left-center to up the lead to 5-3.

Thornton had a great chance to turn the tide again in the bottom half of the fifth as Fallon fought back from a 1-2 count to walk and load the bases with one out. But Huot buckled down and struck out Gelinas with a trio of curveballs, and then got Wright to pop out to first to end the threat.

“He’s been doing that all year, making tough pitches against good hitters and battling,” said Brown, the catcher. “That was huge for us, especially with the bases loaded. He’s always really cool under pressure, that’s the good thing about Nate.”

The Tigers added one last unearned run in the seventh as Brown reached base with two outs on a Fallon error, stole second and scored on Huot’s third two-out RBI hit of the game.

Huot then finished things off in the bottom half of the inning, walking leadoff batter Conor Purvis but inducing a pair of groundouts before striking out Fallon ”“ incidentally the Thornton player who had launched that home run off Huot in the first inning last year ”“ looking with one last hard-breaking curve to end the game.

“That was my pitch today,” Huot said of his curveball. “It was on point and that’s what I had to throw to get batters out.”

“He did a great job on the outside part of the plate,” Petit said of Huot. “He was getting those strikes and he stayed right there all day.”

Thornton will travel to Scarborough today, the first of four teams currently in the playoff places the Trojans will play over the next eight days to finish the regular season.

For a team sitting at .500 after losing three of its last four games, it will be a season-defining stretch.

“We’ve been in every game,” Petit said. “Things just haven’t turned out at the end the way we would have liked. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing and clean it up in the field.”

On the other side Biddeford improved to 6-1 on the season in games decided by three runs or less. The Tigers will travel to Noble today, and then host 11-2 Marshwood in a pivotal late-season clash on Thursday night.

“We’ve just been doing the little things in baseball that have allowed us to win,” Brown said. “Defense and pitching has been getting us through all year, and we’ve been getting those two-out hits to win these one and two-run games.”

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