AUGUSTA – Cinderella was on board the first bus to leave the American Legion State Tournament Sunday afternoon.

The Penquis Navigators’ successful baseball season ended with a 13-3, mercy rule-shortened loss to New Auburn in a morning elimination game at Morton Field.

New Auburn, now 20-6 with a 2 p.m. elimination game against the Bangor-Coastal Athletics loser, opened up on Penquis in the first inning by sending 14 batters to the plate, ripping seven hits, and scoring seven of eight runs after two outs had been made.

“We didn’t step on the field with any ferocity yesterday and got ripped, but we didn’t play tentative today,” said New Auburn coach Brian Flynn. “We came out firing. I think this had a lot to do with our frame of mind.”

First baseman and No. 8 hitter Craig Cormier led New Auburn’s 15-hit attack by going 4-for-5 with five RBIs, three of which came on his first-inning, bases-loaded double to the wall in right center field.

“After I hit the double, I was just thinking walk or hit,” said Cormier, who noted he felt more comfortable at the plate with everyone else hitting. “I had a single up the middle on a curve, but everything else was on fastballs.”

While Cormier gave New Auburn all the offense it would need, starter Joey Dumont handled the pitching as he limited Penquis to four total hits while throwing 105 pitches.

“My curveball was really on. I had trouble finding a fastball in the middle innings, but I got it back in the end,” said Dumont, who added that it was much easier pitching with a big lead.

“That first inning couldn’t have been better,” said the righthander, who improves to 7-0. “After yesterday’s bashing, we came back, stepped it up and scored eight runs in the first. We knew we had it from there.”

Dumont struck out six, walked four and let his defense do much of the work while throwing 59 strikes.

Penquis winds up 13-16.

“It’s something to grow on for next year. We had a good time and we had a great group of kids who gave me everything they could,” said Navigators coach Rob St. Louis. “The kids don’t have nothing to be ashamed of. Once we think about it more after a couple hours, they should be more happy with what we accomplished.”

New Auburn’s inspired effort had the team thinking about last season, when it was mercy-ruled in the first game only to come back and finish third overall.

“It’s kind of like deja vu all over again, although this is a much more decisive response than it was last year,” Flynn said. “And having Joey go out and give us a complete game, plus having it go seven innings, really gave us a big lift.”

Penquis scored twice in the fourth courtesy of a hit batter, walk, stolen base, a balk, and an RBI groundout.

New Auburn 13, Penquis 3

(Sunday Afternoon, 7 innings)

New Auburn (20-6) Penquis (13-16)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Verrill, lf 3 3 1 1 Russell, ss 3 0 1

Robinson, 2b 5 0 1 0 Morrison, 3b 3 0 0

Hurd, 2b 0 0 0 0 Gabarro, 1b 3 0 0

Flynn, rf 4 1 1 1 Gray, 2b-p 2 1 0

Dumont, p 4 1 2 2 White, lf 3 0 0

Lawler, ss 5 2 1 0 Weymouth, p-lf 3 1 0

Miller, c 4 2 2 1 Watson, rf-2b 2 0 1

Gamache, 3b 2 2 1 1 Spack, c 1 0 0

Smith, 3b 1 0 0 0 Strout, cf-rf 3 1 0

Cormier, 1b 5 1 4 5 Kane, c-2b 3 0 0

Gagnon, lf 4 1 2 1

Morin, lf 0 0 0 0

Totals 37 13 15 12 Totals 26 3 4 2

New Auburn 801 030 1 ? 13

Penquis 000 200 1 ? 3

E?Lawler; Russell 2, Morrison; LOB?New Auburn 10; Penquis 5; 2B?Verrill, Cormier, Morin; Strout; DP?Weymouth-Kane-Gabarro; S?Flynn; SB?Verrill, Gamache; Weymouth

Visitor IP H R ER BB SO

Weymouth (W, 3-4) 2/3 6 8 8 2 0

Gray 6 1/3 9 5 5 4 4

Home IP H R ER BB SO

Dumont (L) 7 4 3 3 3 16

HBP?Weymouth (Dumont); WP?Dumont; BK?Dumont; PB?Kane 2; T?2:11; ATT?76