ROCKPORT – The Rockland High baseball team, loaded with underclassmen, relied on one of its elder statesmen Monday to earn a 3-1 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B baseball victory over rival Camden Hills.

Righthander Wade Oliver, one of just two Tiger seniors, pitched a complete-game five-hitter as Rockland improved its record to 5-2. Oliver struck out six while walking two and hitting a batter in picking up his first win of the spring.

“I wasn’t throwing my fastball for strikes early, but my off-speed stuff was working so I just tried to change speeds and keep them off-balance,” said Oliver, who will play baseball at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish next spring. “My breaking stuff was right on. I didn’t have any trouble with that at all. I was putting it right where I wanted to.”

Oliver threw 103 pitches, 68 for strikes, as he faced just two three-ball counts over the first five innings.

“I thought Wade had good command, especially early in the game he got ahead of the hitters,” said Rockland coach Richie Oliver, Wade’s father. “He mixed it up with his off-speed stuff and kept them off-balance. I don’t think his strikeout total was extremely high, but he had them hitting off their front foot a lot.”

Camden Hills (3-5) managed only one unearned run, that coming in the bottom of the seventh when Christian Pieri reached on an infield error and later scored on Noah Burke’s two-out single to right.

“We just haven’t put it all together yet – pitching, defense and offense – so we’ve got to work at doing that consistently,” said Camden Hills coach Tom Stammen, who has just four seniors on his club. “Today I thought we played real good defense, and we pitched well enough to win, but we just didn’t generate the offense.”

Rockland amassed 10 hits off Camden Hills starter Carlo Light-Lookner and reliever Jeremy Burnside. Light-Lookner scattered eight hits while allowing three earned runs over the first five innings.

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, as junior shortstop Josh Fogg hit a leadoff single, stole second and scored on a one-out single by Ryan Peterson.

Junior catcher Ben Baudanza-Sturks then stuck the game’s decisive blow, a two-out, two-run double in the fourth to extend Rockland’s lead to 3-0. Steve McGuire opened the inning with a single and took second on a wild pitch before leadoff hitter Dom Morrill drew a two-out walk.

That brought up Baudanza-Sturks, who drove a 1-1 fastball to the gap in right-center for the game’s only extra-base hit.

“[Light-Lookner] had been throwing a lot of junk the whole game,” said Baudanza-Sturks. “I didn’t see any fastballs in my first at-bats, so I just waited for a fastball and got one on the outside corner and went with it. It felt good, right on the meat of the bat.”

Fogg and Mike Marsh each had a pair of hits for Rockland, which faces a big test Wednesday against Lincoln Academy of Newcastle, which entered the week undefeated.

But so far, so good for a youthful band of Tigers still learning how good they can be this spring in what is considered a balanced KVAC Class B division.

“I thought we’d be about where we are, but I don’t think anyone else did,” said Wade Oliver. “We’ve got a real young team, but we’re pretty good when we hit the ball. We don’t score a lot of runs, but we’ve got good pitching, and that always helps.

“I don’t even think we’ve played as well as we can yet. I think we can play better, and surprise a lot of people.”

TIGERS 3, WINDJAMMERS 1

Rockland (5-2) Camden Hills (3-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Morrill, 2b 2 1 0 0 Cates, 2b 3 0 0

Baudnza-Strks, c 3 0 1 2 Burke, c 4 1

Coppola, 1b 4 0 1 0 Davee, ss 4 0 0

Oliver, p 3 0 1 0 M. Cummons, dh 2 0 0

Benner, lf 4 0 1 0 Brower, lf 0 0 0

Fogg, ss 4 1 2 0 Ford, pr 0 0 0

McGuire, rf 4 1 1 0 Caswell, pr 0 0 0

Peterson, 3b 3 0 1 1 Light-Looknr, p-3b 3 0

Marsh, cf 3 0 2 0 Erskine, rf 2 0 0

Rogers, 1b 3 0 0 0

Pieri, cf 3 1 0 0

Burnside, 3b-p 3 0 0 0

Totals 30 3 10 3 Totals 27 1 5 1

Rockland 010 200 0 – 3

Camden Hills 000 000 1 – 1

E-Morrill, Coppola; LOB-Rockland 10; Camden Hills 8; 2B-Baudanza-Sturks; SB-Fogg, Benner

Rockland IP H R ER BB SO

Oliver (W, 1-1) 7 5 1 0 2 6

Camden Hills IP H R ER BB SO

Light-Lookner (L, 1-3) 5 8 3 3 3 7

Burnside 2 2 0 0 1 2

HBP-Cates (by Oliver); WP-Oliver 3; Light-Lookner, Burnside; T-2:06; ATT-80