AUBURN — The strangest statistical pattern of the KVAC softball season is over. Edward Little won a game without scoring 19 runs.

EL’s up-and-down offense accumulated that exorbitant number in each of its three previous victories this spring. In Monday’s twilight, though, Emily Schario didn’t require nearly that much support to solidify the Red Eddies’ 3-1 triumph over Lewiston at Sweetser Field.

Schario stranded seven Lewiston runners on base through the first three innings and didn’t allow a baserunner after EL (4-4) turned a double play to end the fourth. She struck out eight.

“The last week she’s really pitched well. She was a little off to start the game, but she has fielders behind her that make plays,” EL coach Elaine Derosby said of Schario. “She is one who’s really pushing. She works hard as anybody in practice to make herself better, and it’s showing.”

Lewiston (1-7) was one of the early-season victims of the EL power surge. The Eddies needed two runs in the bottom of the fourth to take control of a rematch that was a far cry from that one.

Danica Nadeau walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored the eventual winning run on pinch hitter Hannah Farrington’s double to center field.

Farrington took third on a passed ball and scored on a chopper by Karli Stubbs that led to a throwing error.

“It was nice to see improvement, especially because this is the first time we start seeing people a second time around,” Lewiston coach Erica Crowley said. “I thought we played well. We had a couple of mishaps, but I think we recovered well from them. We stranded a ton on base. Just coming through on those opportunities when we do have all those base runners on is a struggle for us.”

Meghan Girouard, Erica Brochu and Maegan Mathon strung together two-out singles against Schario in the first. Schario coaxed a comebacker from Mikaela Brown to escape the jam.

Lewiston put its first three aboard in the third on a walk, a fielder’s choice piggybacked by a throwing error, and a second free pass. Two infield pop outs and another bouncer to the circle silenced that rally.

Schario staked herself to a 1-0 lead in the second with a triple over the head of left fielder Girouard, plating Nadeau with two out.

That was the lone run surrendered by Lewiston starter Brochu, who departed after striking out Sarah Hammond for the initial out in the bottom of the third.

“Erica actually has a little bit of an injury right now. It’s her senior year, her last game against EL. She really wanted to get out there,” Crowley said. “I asked her, ‘Can you give me three innings?’ She went two and two batters, and we really didn’t want to push her because we do have two other games this week.”

Michelle Malia pitched the remainder of the game for the Devils, and her leadoff double set up the tying run in the fourth.

Sami Rioux’s one-out double knotted the game. She took third on a grounder to Hammond at second base but was caught lingering off the bag by a perfect strike from Kory Norcross to Nadeau at the opposite corner.

EL rode the momentum of that 4-3-5 double play into the bottom half of the frame. That it took the Red Eddies some time to settle in was no surprise to their coach.

“This game’s a little bit different emotionally. We play at 5 o’clock when we normally play at 4. We don’t normally play in this park, (so there’s) the emotion of going back to your little league park,” Derosby said. “We’re young mentally and emotionally and so that kind of gets us off where we’ve been and what we’ve been trying to accomplish.”

Malia allowed only a triple to Farrington over the final two frames. Schario trumped that by striking out four of the final five Blue Devils.

“Complete credit to them. They’re building. She’s doing a great job with them,” Derosby said of Crowley and Lewiston. “We are the highest-scoring 4-4 team ever. We have kids in new places. We have young kids playing. In three of our losses we gave up 17 (total) runs and 15 were unearned. We’re cleaning it up a little bit.”

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