The combination of a wicked early schedule, youthful roster and some close defeats has made the start of the season tough on the Windham baseball team.

After a 4-3 road loss to Biddeford on Tuesday afternoon, the Eagles dropped to 0-6, with all those defeats coming to teams that made the playoffs a year ago. It was their second one-run loss of the year, and three of the losses have come by a combined five runs. The other three losses have come to Deering, Westbrook and Bonny Eagle – the top three teams in the league, record-wise at least.

“It’s hard because we started off with a really tough schedule,” said Windham coach Mike Fullerton. “I hate to use that as an excuse, but when you go 5-0 in the preseason then start 0-5, there’s a confidence that we need to get back, the confidence we had in the preseason. It’s coming. The kids are really working hard.”

That elusive first victory was just four outs away Tuesday against the Tigers. Windham had a 3-2 lead over Biddeford with two outs in the sixth, but Nate Cadorette tied the game with a solo home run that cleared the fence in left field.

“Like always, I was just trying to put the ball in play,” Cadorette said. “You do that and something good will happen. We were down. I was just trying to get on base and fortunately it went over the fence.”

The Tigers scored the game-winner the next inning when Cody Petit was hit by a pitch with two outs and the bases loaded to force in Nick Papa, who had singled with one out. Papa advanced to third when Trevor Fleurent’s hard grounder down the third-base line hopped over a glove and into left field. Fleurent ended up at second and Tyler Audie was intentionally walked to load the bases. A 3-0 pitch to Petit from Windham reliever Matt Brown nicked him and Papa trotted home to end the game.

“A big hit is always more exciting, but a win’s a win and we’ll take them any way we can get them,” said Biddeford coach Casey Roy.

The Tigers knew the Eagles were better than their record suggests.

“They’ve played some good teams, some pretty tough competition,” Cadorette said. “We knew coming into it that they were going to put up a good fight.”

Windham jumped on top in the first inning when Tucker Miller led off with an infield single, stole second and went to third on a balk. He scored on Colin Mello’s single to put the Eagles up 1-0.

Biddeford struck back with two in the second, as Fleurent scored on a single by Tyler Parker and Petit crossed the plate on a single by Cadorette. Windham tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth when Brett Bailey – batting in the No. 9 slot – reached on his second single of the game, stole second and raced home on Miller’s infield single.

Bailey’s suicide squeeze in the sixth to score Drew Gagnon gave the Eagles a short-lived 3-2 lead. With Gagnon headed home on the release of the pitch, Bailey got down a textbook sacrifice bunt, ensuring there was no play at the plate.

“Brett’s in the lineup because he’s a contact hitter,” Fullerton said. “He doesn’t strike out very much and he’s a great bunter. He showed that on the squeeze play. He does all the right things. He’s not a kid that’s going to hit the gaps, but he’s going to put the ball in play. He’s been swinging real well lately.”

Sophomore Ben Noble pitched the first six innings for Windham, allowing seven hits and three runs. Fullerton was very pleased with his performance.

“Ben’s a very good pitcher,” the coach said. “He’s got a lot of potential. He’s very young. He does exactly what we ask him to do.”

The Eagles stranded nine runners on base, five in the first three innings.

“Defense is not the issue with them,” Roy said. “They don’t do anything defense-wise or pitching-wise to hurt themselves. They made plays and made us beat them, as opposed to beating themselves. They did all the little stuff right. It was just that big hit that they were lacking. In the last inning we got lucky and were able to string a few things together.”

Tyler Laverriere pitched a complete game for the Tigers, striking out 12 while allowing eight hits. Cadorette had three hits for Biddeford. Nick Taylor, Miller and Bailey each had two hits for Windham.