Gorham senior Brian Jenkins stepped to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning of Thursday’s season opener against Windham in one of those situations batters live for. Tie game, bases loaded, one out.

“I was just trying to put the ball in the air, get the runner in from third,” Jenkins said.

He took it a step further. Jenkins – having already hit a two-run, inside-the-park home run in the second inning and a single in the fourth – clubbed a triple to deep left field to clear the bases. Jenkins then came home when Ryan McMullen’s pop-up to left field fell in to put Gorham up 12-8, the final score. Mustafa Jamal came in to work a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts to preserve the Southwestern Maine Activities Association victory for the Rams at Gorham.

It was a wacky, back-and-forth game that saw both teams make big plays and also make some early-season miscues.

Windham took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, thanks to two hits, two walks and an error. Gorham answered in the bottom half of the inning with five runs, as Windham starter Arthur Winship had control issues. He walked the first four batters before being lifted for Collin Mello.

Mello hit Jenkins with his first pitch to give Gorham its second run. He then threw a wild pitch that allowed Jon Dahms to trot in from third to tie it at 3-3. After McMullen and Kyle Butterfield added back-to-back RBI singles, Mello beaned Alex Libby with a pitch to again load the bases. He got Jamal, Gorham’s No. 9 hitter, to pop out for the first out, then struck out Mike Foley for the second. The third out came on Joel Mundy’s deep fly ball to right-center field

Windham tied the game in the second as Adam Szklany walked to leadoff, advanced to second on a wild pitch by Gorham starter Nate Sturgis and went to third on David Ingraham’s single. He scored on an error. Ingraham came home on Nate Johnson’s RBI single.

Gorham retook the lead at 7-5 in the bottom of the second on Jenkins’ inside-the-park homer, which got under the slide of Ingraham in left field and rolled to the fence. It also scored Sturgis, who had reached on a single.

The Eagles rallied again in the top of the third as four of the first five hitters singled. With the bases loaded and one run already in, Gorham elected to intentionally walk Johnson, pushing the tying run across the plate to make it 7-7.

“(Johnson is) one of the better players in the league,” said Gorham coach Rocky Myers. “When you’re in game like that where every run is huge, (it’s important) to not give them a chance at two or three. He’s scorched the ball every time he’s hit it.”

Sam LeBlanc, the Windham clean-up hitter, followed with a hard line drive to second that resulted in a double play. A foot either way, and it would have scored two runs. Instead, it proved Myers’ risky call to be a good one.

The Rams went up 8-7 in the bottom of the third after Libby singled and later came home on an error.

Sturgis, who finished with four strikeouts, kept the Eagles off the scoreboard in the fourth and fifth. Mello did the same to the Rams. He struck out three on the afternoon.

Windham made it 8-8 in the bottom of the sixth. After a pop out, Winship walked and Nick Taylor singled, chasing Sturgis from the game. Nick Gowen came on in relief. On his first pitch, Mello blooped the ball to short center field. It dropped in. With Winship running to third, that’s where the throw went. Winship and Jamal, playing third base, collided and the ball came loose, loading the bases. Winship came home when Gowen bobbled a grounder back to the mound by Tucker Miller and couldn’t make a play. Gorham escaped further damage when a botched squeeze play by the Eagles resulted in Taylor getting thrown out between third and home. A groundout ended the Windham threat.

Gowen got the win for the Rams. LeBlanc came on in the sixth for the Eagles and took the loss.

“I think we put ourselves in position to win, we just didn’t take advantage of some things,” said Windham coach Mike Fullerton. “That’s what happens, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”