SACO — In the regular season Thornton Academy traveled to Gorham and beat the Rams on their home field. On Tuesday, the No. 12 Rams returned the favor as they made the trek to Saco and cruised to a 13-2 upset win over the No. 5 Golden Trojans in the Western Maine Class A opening round.

“I felt like we were competitive in that game ”¦ I think in that game they had opportunities and they got a big hit every time they had opportunities,” said Gorham coach Chuck Nadeau. “I think it flipped a little bit today. When we had an opportunity, we got a big hit.”

Gorham used a two-run single from Gerek Brown and a two-run double by Logan Drouin ”“ along with two Thornton errors ”“ to put a six-spot on the board against Trojans’ ace Ben Lambert in the first inning.

“It was huge. We were facing Ben and he can dominate a game, so when you get six runs in the first inning, it’s big,” said Nadeau.

“Ben had a rough first inning and they jumped on us,” said Thornton coach Ray Petit.

Thornton would answer with one run in both the bottom of the first and second innings to cut the lead to 6-2, but Gorham starter Sam Kilborn would hold the Trojans scoreless the rest of the way.

“He wasn’t real sharp in the first few innings, but (then you) saw him kind of self correct and get back in the zone,” said Nadeau.

“I found what I was doing wrong and I corrected it ”¦ it was easy after that,” said Kilborn, who was thrilled to see his offense spot him a big lead. “Six runs in the first inning is pretty good.”

The Gorham offense would add three more in the sixth and four in the seventh to put the game out of reach.

“We settled in and we were working our way back and, hey, they just had the hot bats today,” said Petit.

It wasn’t as if the Trojans weren’t getting good swings at Kilborn as several hard hit balls were snagged by Gorham defenders.

“We did, I mean, Evan Balzano hit a bunch of balls hard, Brogan Searle-Belanger hit a bunch of balls hard, but they were right at somebody when they hit it,” said Petit.

That solid defense helped calm Kilborn down in several pressure situations ”“ including a bases-loaded jam in the third.

“It builds my confidence when they are making plays,” said Kilborn.

Nadeau was impressed with how his pitcher worked with the big lead.

“Pitching with a lead is a skill. You pitch a little differently, you pound the strike zone and make them put it in play and I think Sam did a great job of that today ”¦ he really showed some maturity in settling into the game and letting his defense help him,” said Nadeau.

The Rams, who had to win their final three games to reach the playoffs, will look to continue their hot streak when they play No. 4 Falmouth on Thursday.

“We’ve had three playoff games before this one, because we had to win to get in. As a 12 seed, no one is expecting us to do anything, so it’s nice to build off that and hopefully we can keep upsetting teams,” said Kilborn.

The Trojans finish the season with an 11-6 record and Petit is hoping his young team will use this as a learning tool.

“They had a great season. It’s tough coming into a tournament like this when you are one-and-done, but you know it’s a learning experience. It’s a young team and hopefully we take this into next year and know what we need to do in the first round,” said Petit.

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.