TURNER — Noah Carpenter was one dropped third strike away from perfection.

The senior hurler still notched Leavitt’s third no-hitter of the season in the Hornets’ 2-0 victory over Poland in a Class B South preliminary-round baseball game Tuesday.

Sixth-seeded Leavitt (15-2) will face third-seeded York (11-5) in the quarterfinals. Hornets coach Chris Cifelli said the game will be played Wednesday.

Carpenter threw 74 pitches and had 11 strikeouts. He said he used all of his pitches to keep the Knights guessing.

“Just knowing I can rely on the fastball and use my off-speeds to keep them on their toes,” said Carpenter, who has committed to play baseball and football at the University of Maine.

Teammates Will Keach (against Medomak Valley) and Trent Holst (Waterville) threw no-hitters earlier this season.

“We knew at the start of the season, probably our strength would be our pitching staff,” Cifelli said. “Again, you never think of going in and having no-hitters. Just every single game, these pitchers have kept us in it.”

Carpenter’s perfect game bid ended during the first at-bat of the game when Regan Cohen struck out swinging, but Leavitt catcher Luke Gladu dropped the pitch and Cohen beat the throw to first.

“It’s all love, but I have to give him some hate sometimes,” Carpenter said, referring to Gladu. “He played great behind the dish. It’s fine, we got the dub, that’s all that matters to me.”

Cohen was thrown out trying to steal second base to end the inning.

Carpenter got a strikeout, groundout and a flyout in the second inning.

“I thought the boys struggled with the approach at the beginning, and we tried to make adjustments as the game went along, but the breaks didn’t go our way,” Poland coach Charlie Pray said.

In the bottom of the second, the bottom of the half of the Hornets’ lineup did all the damage Leavitt needed. With two outs and the bases loaded, No. 9 hitter Nick Mellen singled to short left, bringing home Kade Knight and Jace Nagley for a 2-0 lead.

“I was just trying to get someone home,” Mellen said. “I was just trying to get a run in.”

Cifelli said this is nothing new for the bottom third of Leavitt’s lineup.

“The bottom half of our lineup has done a great job, and Nick coming through is what we needed to complement Noah’s start,” Cifelli said.

Eleventh-seeded Poland (7-10) grounded out to shortstop Will Keach twice in the top of the third. The third out came when Aiden Bean hit the ball down the first baseline, and Knight, the first baseman, fielded the ball and flipped it to Carpenter, who was covering first.

Cohen had a long at-bat to start the top of the fourth, but Carpenter won the battle with a strikeout. Carpenter ended up striking out the side.

Leavitt loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth when Knight, Brandon Bilodeau and Holst all singled.

Mellen had another chance to bring home some runs, but he knicked the ball back to Poland starter Adam Gwarjanski, who started a 1-2-3 double play when he threw to Cohen at home to get Knight, and Cohen threw to first baseman Travis West to get Mellen.

“I think defensively, we played a very clean game,” Pray said. “We were trying to limit our mistakes and we talked about, in playoff baseball, you can’t give teams extra outs, and we did a good job of that.”

Gwarjanski, a University of Southern Maine baseball commit, was also stellar on the mound, allowing seven hits, walking one and striking out two while throwing 70 pitches over six innings.

“Adam was doing a good job,” Pray said. “His fastball was up at the beginning of the game, he had trouble controlling that, but then started getting some breaking pitches low in the zone, which brought his fastball down. Once he was able to establish the lower part of the zone, he kept the middle of their order off bay. He did a great job.”

Keach was the final batter to reach base for Leavitt when he singled in the bottom of the fifth, but Gwarjanski picked him off at first.

Colten Taylor, Leavitt’s second baseman, made a nice catch in short right in the top of the sixth to keep Carpenter’s no-hitter intact.

“I really couldn’t have done it without Luke behind the dish and the boys in the field,” Carpenter said. “They made plays that I couldn’t make. I just put the ball in play.”

Mellen recorded the 21st out to complete the no-hitter when he caught a flyout in left.

“Just get under it and catch it,” Mellen said when asked what he was thinking when the ball was in the air.