BANGOR, Maine — As the goaltender for the Bangor High School hockey team, Derek Fournier was familiar with cutting off the angles for opposing shooters.
Now the starting catcher for the baseball team, the sophomore used the shooter’s perspective of that hockey knowledge to deliver a go-ahead, two-run single with two out in the bottom of the fifth inning Tuesday to lift the defending Class A state champions past Brewer 4-3 at Mansfield Stadium.
The win was the seventh straight for second-ranked Bangor (12-2), which has home games against No. 3 Edward Little of Auburn Thursday and No. 7 Cony of Augusta Friday to close out the regular season.
Brewer (9-4) had won nine of its previous 10 games to enter the Bangor contest ranked fourth in Eastern A.
“We’ve played this Brewer team so many times and we know it’s never over until it’s over,” Bangor coach Jeff Fahey said. “Every time we play them it’s an adventure, and today was just a good high school baseball game.”
Fournier lined a bases-loaded single into center field to drive home Jordan Derrah and Andrew Hillier, capping a four-run rally after Bangor had been shut out on one hit through the first four innings by junior right-hander Matt Pushard.
“It was a fastball right down the pike,” Fournier said of the 0-1 pitch. “I just wanted to drive the ball and get at least a base hit. I knew [Brewer’s] Logan [Rogerson] was going to make a good play if I hit it to him because he’s a great shortstop so I tried to hit it from the middle to the right side just to get the runners on second and third home.”
Ryan Brookings, who struck out while batting left-handed against Pushard in the second inning, started Bangor’s go-ahead rally with a right-handed single to left, then scored the Rams’ first run when Johnny Cote lined a triple over the head of shallow-playing Brewer center fielder Tyler Williams.
Cote scored the tying run when Trevor DeLaite hit a double that ticked off the glove of lunging Brewer left fielder Joe Wheaton, and Derrah followed by hustling out an infield hit to shortstop.
An intentional walk to Hillier loaded the bases before Rogerson forced DeLaite out at home on a grounder to shortstop by Sam Huston.
Fournier, who went 3-for-3 against Hampden last Friday, delivered the eventual game-winning hit.
“That ball he hit to drive in the runs, nobody was going to catch that one,” Fahey said.
Hillier (4-0) allowed two runs on four hits over five innings and when reliever James Prescott yielded a run in the sixth on a one-out double by Alex Brooks and two wild pitches, DeLaite came on to earn a five-out save that included a pickoff of an inherited runner and three strikeouts.
“With Trevor coming in I’m really confident in him throwing strikes,” Fournier said of the lefty, who is 4-0 as a starter this spring.
Pushard (4-1) pitched a six-hitter with five strikeouts and one walk.
Brewer, which fell to Bangor 14-3 during the first week of the season, came into the rematch as a much more confident club and cashed in on those good vibrations to take a 2-0 lead in the fourth.
Rogerson drew a leadoff walk and Pushard singled to left before cleanup batter Mike Grimble sacrificed the baserunners to second and third.
Brooks then dumped a pop fly beyond Bangor’s drawn-in infield and into left field to plate Rogerson with the game’s first run, and Evan Riva flared an 0-2 pitch into shallow right for an opposite-field single that drove home Pushard for a 2-0 advantage.
But Bangor, the defending state champion, was not too worried.
“We don’t get too shook up, we stay even-keeled and don’t worry about a lot,” DeLaite said. “When we get behind we just try to come up with a plan to come back.”
