AUBURN — Edward Little isn’t picky about how it gets on base. Just find a way.

The Red Eddies peppered Oxford Hills pitching for 11 hits, all but one of them singles, to hand the Vikings their first loss of the season, 8-5, at Pettengill Park Wednesday.

“We talk about getting cheap base hits and getting on base any way we can,” EL senior pitcher Luke Farrago said. “That’s what it came down to today: finding a way to put the ball in play.”

Leadoff hitter John Simpson led the onslaught by going 3 for 4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Gage Clavet and Sean Ford each added a pair of hits.

“It’s coming around,” EL coach Scott Annear said of his team’s offense. “I don’t think we’re any different from everyone else in spending a whole lot of time working on offense. The kids understand it’s about putting it into action. It doesn’t matter how pretty it looks as long as you get on base.”

Some ugliness in the field on the Vikings’ part helped get the Eddies rolling.

With runners on first and second and none out in the second inning, Corey Henderson laid down a bunt to third. Ty Martin charged and would have had a force out at third because the ball was bunted so hard, but he elected to throw to first instead. The throw sailed past the first baseman and out of play, plating Mike Hammond and knotting the game at 1-1.

Two outs later, Vikings starter Dalton Rice uncorked a wild pitch to send Ford home and give the Eddies (3-1) the lead for good.

EL tacked on three more in the fourth, again with some help from the Vikings (2-1). Simpson’s two-out bloop to short left-center drove home Hammond. Ford stopped at third but was able to trot home when center fielder Nick Bowie’s throw skipped past the catcher and to the backstop to make it 4-1. Josh Delong followed with an RBI single for a 5-1 cushion.

“We made a few errors,” Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer said. “I think our youth showed a little bit. We didn’t pay attention to detail. We’re going to have errors every once in a while and that’s OK, but every run is so important.”

Farrago (6 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2K, 4 BB) didn’t have his best stuff on the mound but kept himself out of further trouble in key spots. He picked off Matt Beauchesne at second in the first inning, meaning Brandon Campbell (3-for-4, HR, 2B, two RBIs) could only give the Vikings a 1-0 lead when he launched an 0-2 pitch over the center field fence.

A strikeout canceled out a pair of two-out walks in the fourth. Farrago struggled to find the strike zone again in the fifth, walking Jordan Croteau with the bases loaded and uncorking a wild pitch that cut the lead to 5-3. But he stranded the tying runs in that inning and worked around the Eddies’ only error in the sixth.

“I knew I just had to throw strikes. We have a great ‘D’ behind me,” Farrago said. “It just came down to letting them put it in play and letting them make mistakes.”

The Eddies added three insurance runs in the sixth on Clavet’s RBI single and Farrago’s two-run double.

Those runs turned out to be crucial after the Vikings plated a pair when Simpson relieved Farrago in the seventh. An RBI double by Campbell, a single by Croteau and an RBI single by Dylan Cox brought the tying run to the plate with one out. But Simpson closed the door with a fly out to right and a ground out to second.

Beauchesne, the Vikings’ leadoff hitter and shortstop, injured his ankle on a play at first base and had to leave the game in the third inning.