BANGOR — Brewer and Bangor will clash in a winner-take-all battle for a berth in the Senior League World Series tonight after Brewer emerged from the loser’s bracket of the Maine District 3 tournament with two victories Sunday at Mansfield Stadium.
Brewer eliminated Hermon 9-1, then topped previously unbeaten Bangor 5-2 behind the six-hit pitching of Yuhi Sasaki and Jeff Weeks.
Brewer (4-1) and Bangor (3-1) will play at 7 tonight for the right to be the host team for the SLWS, which returns to Bangor for the ninth straight year on Aug. 15-21.
That winner will join three other teams that already have qualified for the 10-team field: Lazio, Italy (Europe-Middle East-Africa), Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Asia Pacific) and San Nicolas, Aruba, which won the Latin America title Saturday with a 5-2 win over San Juan, Puerto Rico.
“A lot of these kids could have played Legion this year but wanted one more crack at the World Series,” said Brewer manager Roger White. “Now they have that chance. It’s down to one game, and may the best team win.”
Brewer avenged a 6-3 loss to Bangor on Friday by building a 5-1 lead through three innings and then riding the pitching of Sasaki and Weeks and an errorless defense to victory.
Sasaki worked into the sixth, allowing two runs on four hits with four strikeouts and three walks.
“I know my teammates have my back so I was just trying to throw as many strikes as possible and have them make the plays instead of me just trying to strike everybody out,” said Sasaki, whose first 11 pitches of the game all went for strikes.
The righthander, who will be a junior at Brewer High School, kept Bangor’s hitters off balance by mixing a fastball, curve and changeup.
“Bangor’s a fastball hitting team, we knew that from before the first time we played them,” said Brewer shortstop Tyler White. “Yuhi did a good job with the curveball.”
When Sasaki issued back-to-back walks to Dylan Morris and Adam King with one out in the sixth, Weeks came on in relief. He yielded an RBI single to Josiah Hartley that drew Bangor within three runs, but then retired five of the next six batters he faced to earn the save.
Sasaki opened the bottom of the first with a triple to center and scored on Tyler White’s sacrifice fly to give Brewer a 1-0 lead against Bangor starter Curtis Worcester.
Hartley answered with a one-out home run to left field in the top of the second to tie the game.
Ben Pushard hit a two-out, two-run double to left-center to make it 3-1 in the bottom of the inning after a leadoff walk to Matt Morrow and a one-out infield hit down the first-base line by Jeremy Bissell.
“I’m just glad I hit it,” said Pushard, the No. 9 hitter in the Brewer batting order. “I was looking curveball but he threw me three straight fastballs.”
Kyle Alexander had an infield hit and Tyler White singled to center to put Brewer runners on first and second with no one out in the third. Worcester struck out the next two batters and threw a first-pitch strike to John Hand, but Alexander took off for third on the next pitch and scored on an errant throw.
White reached third on the play, and he scored to make it 5-1 when Hand singled to right on the next pitch.
Worcester finished with a complete-game seven-hitter, striking out nine batters and walking just one.
In Sunday’s first game, Zach Violette allowed one run on five hits with four strikeouts and four walks over 6¤ innings for Brewer.
Sasaki paced the Brewer offense with a triple, two singles and two RBIs, while White doubled and singled with two RBIs.
Violette added a triple, single and an RBI while Ian Forrest had three singles and an RBI and Nick Moore doubled.
Reid McGinley drove in Hermon’s lone run with an RBI single in the top of the fifth.
(Sunday’s First Game)
Hermon (3-2) 000 010 0 — 1 5 2
Brewer (3-1) 031 320 x — 9 14 0
Hamlin, Tremblay (6) and Frederick; Violette, Alexander (7) and Forrest
(Second Game)
Bangor (3-1) 010 001 0 — 2 6 1
Brewer (4-1) 122 000 x — 5 7 0
Worcester and Morris; Sasaki, Weeks (6) and Alexander
