CORINTH – Undefeated Central High School righthander Levi Nickerson may have lost his no-hitter and shutout with two outs in the fifth inning but he didn’t let that prevent him from collecting his sixth win.

Nickerson tossed a two-hitter, striking out eight and walking two, and the Red Devils held off Bangor Christian 6-3 Tuesday.

Central’s win was its seventh in its last eight games, enabling the Devils to wind up the regular season with a 13-3 record. Bangor Christian fell to 5-11.

Central coach Alan Strout said he thought the 13 wins tied the school record.

Nickerson retired the first 14 hitters he faced until Jeremy Leong drew a two-out walk by checking his swing on a low 3-2 pitch.

Leong stole second and the next hitter, Chris Potter, rifled a long ground-rule double to left center to break up the no-hit and shutout bids and pull the Patriots within 4-1.

An infield error enabled Potter to score before Nickerson induced a grounder back to him to end the inning.

Nickerson gave up another run in the sixth as he was touched for a walk and a Jared Theriault single to open the inning but catcher Brenden Wilson threw out a potential base stealer at second to help defuse a possible multi-run inning.

“He was a good pitcher. He was fast and he threw strikes,” said Potter, who pitched well in defeat thanks to a lot of effective off-speed pitches.

Nickerson said he was pleased with his outing.

“I threw mostly fastballs and some curves and, with the exception of one shaky inning when I lost my rhythm, I thought I had pretty good control,” said Nickerson, who threw 64 strikes among his 100 pitches.

“Levi is always good. He’s a strong pitcher who overpowers a lot of people,” said Central junior second baseman Scott Kelley, who paced Central’s 11-hit attack with a double and a single and two runs batted in.

Kelley drove in a first-inning run with a fielder’s choice on which BC second baseman Leong made a nice diving play. Danny Kane had opened the inning with a walk and he moved to third on a stolen base and a wild pitch.

Nickerson walked to start a two-run second inning and Wilson followed with a base hit to Leong’s right.

Jacob Speed sacrificed them along before Kane’s sacrifice fly and Kelley’s line-drive single to left delivered Nickerson and Wilson, respectively.

Central made it 4-0 in the third on Charlie Haney’s two-out single, his stolen base and Tyler Speed’s RBI single.

After BC scored two in the top of the fifth, Central re-established a four-run lead in the bottom of the inning with a pair of unearned runs on an infield error, a walk, a rundown in which the runner beat the throw home and Nickerson’s bad-hop RBI single.

Along with Kelley, Ben Merrill, Haney and Wilson also had two hits for Central.

Strout said his team’s defense was instrumental in the win.

“We made the big plays when we had to,” said Strout.

RED DEVILS 6, PATRIOTS 3

Bangor Christian (5-11) Central (13-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Johnson, cf 2 1 0 0 Kane, ss 2 1 1

Theriault, ss 3 0 1 0 Kelley, 2b 4 2

Dougherty, c 3 0 0 1 Merrill, 3b 4 1 0

Durkee, 1b 3 0 0 0 Evans, pr 0 0 0

Smith, lf 3 0 0 0 Collins, dh 3 0 0

Leong, 2b 2 1 0 0 St. Peter, cf 0 0 0

Potter, p 3 1 1 1 Faggiolo, cf 0 0 0

Washburn, rf 3 0 0 0 Haney, lf 4 1 1

Bradford, 3b 2 0 0 0 T. Speed, 1b 2 1 1

Nickerson, p 2 1 1 1

Wilson, c 3 1 2 0

Hughes, pr 0 0 0 0

J. Speed, rf 2 0 0 0

Totals 24 3 2 2 Totals 26 6 11 6

Bangor Christian 000 021 0 – 3

Central 121 020 x – 6

E-Bradford; T. Speed, Kelley; LOB-BC 2, Central 9; 2B-Potter; Kelley; DP-Theriault-Durkee; S-J. Speed, Faggiolo; SF-Kane; SB-Johnson, Theriault; Kane 2, Haney

Bangor Christian IP H R ER BB SO

Potter (L, 3-3) 6 11 6 4 3 0

Central IP H R ER BB SO

Nickerson (W, 6-0) 7 2 3 2 2 8

WP-Potter 2; PB-Dougherty; T-2:01; ATT-125 (est.)