NORTH BERWICK — On July 8, with his team just 2-8 midway through the Zone 5 American Legion baseball season, Massabesic coach Jeff Cessario said he was “disappointed” with his team’s start to the summer.

Just two weeks later, disappointed might not even be in Cessario’s vocabulary.

Massabesic used a complete-game, five-hitter from Sean Adams, and got two runs apiece in both the fourth and seventh innings to beat Noble 4-1 on Monday in North Berwick. It was the eighth straight win for Massabesic, closing out the regular season.

The victory earned Massabesic the No. 3 seed for the Zone 5 tournament, setting up a semifinal with second-seeded Fayette-Staples of Saco (11-7) at 4:30 today at Thornton Academy ”“ weather permitting.

Saco Bay PT of York-Wells (9-8-1) dropped to No. 4 and will travel to South Berwick to take on top-seeded Staples Crossing (15-2-1) in the day’s other semis at Marshwood High School, also at 4:30 p.m., weather permitting.

“At the beginning of the season, if you told me we were going to be 2-8 (halfway through the season), I would have said ”˜impossible,’ because I honestly thought we had one of the better teams out there,” Cessario said. “We were losing close games and couldn’t put them together, but the last eight games we have been putting it together.”

Cessario said the ability to score runs is what turned the tide.

“We started hitting,” said Cessario. “We were getting pretty good defense and very good pitching when we were 2-8, we actually lost two games when our pitcher threw a one-hitter. But we weren’t manufacturing runs. The last eight games, our bats have been coming around, we’re making contact and we’re being aggressive.”

Just about the only thing that could have slowed down Massabesic on Monday were the umpires, and that almost happened when a communications snafu meant both teams, but no umpires, were at the field at the scheduled 5:45 p.m. start time.

If a man in blue couldn’t be summoned, it would have meant a tie, leaving Massabesic with a record of 9-8-1 and the fourth seed as York-Wells held the tiebreaker.

But Noble (3-15) coach Adam Hale came through in the clutch, digging deep into his contact list to find an umpire.

When the game began at 6:40 p.m., Massabesic created a chance right away in the first as it loaded the bases with one out, but Noble starter Brett Burke got out of the jam with a groundout and strike out.

Massabesic had another chance in the second as Dawson Renaud smacked a triple to right, but it came with two outs, and Renaud was stranded as Shawn McCarthy flew out.

Massabesic scored two innings later as a Ben Chadbourne walk, followed by a Matt Allen infield single, put runners at first and third with one out.

Weston Bergeron then came up with the big hit, doubling to left field to score Chadbourne. Allen was thrown out on the play trying to take third, but Renaud smacked a two-out single to plate Bergeron and give his team a 2-0 lead.

“We’ve had those games where we’d get guys on every game and not get them in,” Cessario said. “Now we’re starting to cash those in.”

After giving up two hits in the first, Adams was rolling on the other side, allowing just two base runners from the second through sixth innings.

“The key, and I’ve been trying to pound this into them, is throwing first strikes and getting ahead of hitters. Sean did a good job of doing that tonight,” Cessario said. “He mixed his pitches up with change of speed and kept them off-balance.”

Massabesic added two more runs to its lead in the seventh on Hunter Duncan and Remi Gaetjens base hits, and those were important as Adams ran into some trouble trying to close things out in the seventh.

Adams opened the inning with a walk, his first free pass of the game, and after a pop out, gave up another walk and then an infield single to load the bases for Noble with one out.

After Cessario visited the mound, Adams buckled down, getting Tyler Merrill to send a sacrifice fly to center for Noble’s only run before inducing a groundout off the bat of Mason Dell-Piana for the final out.

Massabesic will now start Brian Wardwell today against Fayette Staples, which will likely counter with Dillon Dunbar.

Wardwell tossed a three-hitter with nine strikeouts when he faced Fayette on June 13, one of three times Massabesic has beaten Fayette this summer.

Fayette coach Ray Petit said his team would have to put together better at-bats this time around, and also added that playing a nine-inning game, as opposed to the seven innings played during the regular season, could make a difference.

“It’s going to come down to do you have somebody who can come in in the seventh, eighth and ninth,” Petit said. “You may have to use three pitchers with a setup guy and a closer, and you don’t typically have to do that in a seven-inning game. You have to have the right people for the right situations.”

After beating Saco Bay PT twice on Saturday ”“ 6-5 and 11-9 ”“ Staples Crossing goes in as odds-on-favorites in the day’s other semifinal.

Saco Bay, however, was far from full strength in that doubleheader as coach Chuck Chadbourne had just nine players to call upon.

Today, Chadbourne will have the services of his ace Adam Bailey to start, but Chadbourne said he still knows it will take a complete effort to get by the top seeds.

“We out-hit them, but we made some errors, some young kid errors, and you can’t give a team that hits as well as them extra at-bats. They will make you pay,” Chadbourne said. “Marshwood’s a really good team, and someone’s going to have to play really, really well to beat them.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 323.