ORONO – Ron Girard thought he’d take a quick run along the third base line Monday night to stay loose, knowing he had to pitch Tuesday night.

The 26-year-old accountant was heading back to the dugout when a blur appeared on his left side. He was hit by a baseball.

But the errant throw by an outfielder turned Girard’s outing into something spectacular Tuesday as the Mid-Maine Marlins defeated the Molunkus Travelers 3-1, forcing them into an Eastern Maine Amateur Baseball League championship game at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

With the purple swelling engulfing Girard’s eye, Marlin manager Chappu Nelson had hoped to get two innings out of his No. 2 hurler.

Instead, he got six innings of five-hit ball as Girard struck out four, walked one, and threw 56 strikes with 76 pitches.

“Not after I really started to work up a sweat out there,” admitted Girard of the difficulty he had focusing. “It was getting sweat in there, so it was blurry after the third inning. Good thing my right contact was working well.”

But the swelling really kicked in Tuesday morning.

“I was very surprised to wake up this morning and see the swelling,” he said. “I couldn’t really open up, so I just took some Motrin, lots of it …”

The Travelers weren’t as lucky as they managed only one run, Frank Peckham’s first home run of the season, in the fourth inning.

That was all the two-time EMABL champions could muster as the Marlins put together four hits in the effort.

The Marlins had the bases loaded with one-out in the third and were in the same situation in the sixth inning with two outs but couldn’t bring the men home.

Mid-Maine broke the 1-1 tie when Peckham walked leadoff batter Ron Mayo, who advanced on pinch-hitter Travis Dustin’s sacrifice bunt.

Peckham’s second wild pitch of the night sent Mayo to third where he scored easily on Ken Reed’s double to right field.

Reed then scored on a single to right by Mike Choate to seal the 3-1 victory.

Choate finished the night with a pair of singles, while Girard helped his own effort with a fourth-inning double.

The Travelers’ best scoring chance came in the third inning when Dave Hamel hit a hanging single to right field and advanced to third on Ron Coombs’ single.

Third baseman Corey Hight fielded Coombs’ single cleanly but overthrew to first baseman Greg Domarecki, allowing Hamel and Coombs to advance to third and second.

But while right fielder Choate chased down Hight’s errant throw, Hamel attempted to score. Choate’s throw from foul territory was on the mark to catcher Reed, who blocked Hamel at the plate.

Hamel made an impressive dive over Reed, but Reed tagged him out for the inning’s first out.

Coombs was stranded at second as Mid-Maine got out of the inning with no further trouble.

Rex Turner, Mid-Maine’s left fielder, was named the league’s most valuable player for 1995.

Marlins 3, Travelers 1

Molunkus Mid-Maine

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Hamel, cf 3 0 1 0 Mayo, ss 1 1 0 0

R. Coombs, c 3 0 1 0 Ftzptrick,cf 1 0 0 0

R. Harris, 3b 3 0 1 0 a-Dustin 1 0 0 0

Decker, ss 3 0 0 0 Turner, lf 4 0 1 0

Peckhm, p-dh 3 1 1 1 Reed, c 3 1 1 1

S. Coombs, lf 3 0 1 0 Choate, rf 3 1 2 1

Hite, 1b 3 0 0 0 Hight, 3b 3 0 0 0

Conway, 2b 1 0 0 0 Martin, dh 2 0 1 1

b-Sabine 1 0 0 0 Domarecki, 1b 3 0 0 0

Knowles, rf 2 0 0 0 Vantil, 2b 2 0 0 0

Raedel, ph 1 0 0 0

Totals 25 1 5 1 Totals 24 3 5 3

Molunkus (11-10) 000 000 100 – 1

Mid-Maine (18-4) 000 120 000 – 3

E – R. Coombs, R. Harris, Conway, Hight 2B – R. Harris, Reed, Martin HR – Peckham (1) LOB – Molunkus 4, Mid-Maine 9 S – Dustin

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Molunkus

Peckham (L, 2-1) 5 5 3 2 4 3

Clifford 1 0 0 0 2 0

Mid-Maine

Girard (W, 4-1) 6 5 1 1 1 4

LeBlanc (S, 6) 1 0 0 0 0 2

WP – Girard, Peckham 2 TIME – 2:08 ATTENDANCE – 467