BIDDEFORD — It was more than the usual Battle of the Bridge game Saturday between the Biddeford and Thornton Academy baseball teams.

Not only were bragging rights on the line between the two schools, but so was the moniker of which team was the best in York County.

Thanks to timely hitting, the Golden Trojans crossed back over the Saco River with an 8-4 win, and the label of the top squad in the area.

Thornton Academy head coach Greg Paradis said both teams are similar in its way of mixing strong defense and pitching with timely hits

“Whenever you live across the bridge, you always follow how the other team is doing,” Paradis said. “Usually with other teams, you look to see what they’re doing one or two weeks before you play them, but with Biddeford, you follow them all the way through. That’s the way it’s always been, I’m sure. [Biddeford head coach] Casey [Roy] does the same thing, Jason Crepeau before himi and Roger LaBranche before him. They follow us, we follow them, the communities are so close and these guys know each other. They look like a mirror team, and I told Casey after the game, it’s like looking in the mirror. Very similar teams.”

The early innings showed the potential of a pitchers duel between Thornton pitcher Keegan Sullivan and Tigers hurler Tyler Audie. Both pitchers kept the game scoreless for two innings. Thornton Academy shortstop Sam Canales broke the scoring silence in the top of the third inning, driving an Audie pitch over the center field fence for a two-run homer to give Thornton a 2-0 advantage.

“It was a fastball or changeup,” Canales said. “It was high. I was hitting it good in [batting practice] today, I was feeling it.”

Audie redeemed himself in the bottom of the inning, plating Travis Vigneault on an RBI groundout, cutting the lead in half to 2-1.

The Trojans scored two more runs in the fourth inning, thanks to RBI singles by second baseman Jon Pate and leftfielder Alex Jacques to give Thornton a 4-1 lead.

The Tigers best chance for a comeback came in the bottom of the fifth. Biddeford shortstop Scott Callahan scored on an RBI groundout by second baseman Chris Jones, making the score 4-2, and with one out, Biddeford had the bases loaded. The Trojans went to the bullpen for sophomore lefty Jack Kenney to get the team out of the jam, and for the second straight game, that’s exactly what he did, inducing a fly ball in the infield as well as a groundout to get out of the inning.

“We really like the way that Jack throws,” Paradis said. “We trust him. We used him the very first game we played against Westbrook. We were up one run at 3-2, and we brought Jack in because we knew he could throw strikes, he’s going to keep the ball low, pitch to contact, he’s not going to kill us. He’s a real even-keeled guy. I told him after the Westbrook game, if we were in that situation again, you going to be in the same spot. He’s a number three starter for us, but know that we’ve gone to a two-man rotation [featuring Sullivan and freshman Jeff Gelinas], that’s the type of role he’s going to have to play for us.”

Thornton added four insurance runs in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by centerfielder Steve Trask, a sacrifice fly by designated hitter Alex Richardson-Newton and an RBI single by catcher Zach Sheehan to make the score 8-2.

Controversy shrouded the game in the bottom of the sixth. Vigneault smacked a Kenney pitch off the foul pole in right field, normally considered a home run. However, the umpires determined the ball hit below the fence line, thus taking away the home run and awarding Vigneault with a triple, much to the dismay of many fans in the crowd.

Vigneault would score on a Trojans error one batter later, and Callahan plated Trevor Fleurent on an RBI double to bring the score to 8-4. Kenney shut down the Tigers in the seventh to cement the win for Thornton.

“They came out and played really well,” Roy said. “They hit the ball all over the park. We obviously didn’t play a great game today, and when you play good teams, you have to play your best, or that’s what happens.”