BANGOR, Maine — The top-ranked Bangor High School baseball team won their game Thursday afternoon, using a five-run second-inning rally to surge past No. 8 Brunswick 6-0 in an Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal at Mansfield Stadium.
But the Rams also won a key victory within that game by shutting out the Dragons while still keeping both of their pitching aces eligible for Saturday’s regional semifinal against No. 4 Messalonskee of Oakland — a 12-0 quarterfinal winner over No. 5 Oxford Hills of South Paris.
Junior left-hander Trevor DeLaite and senior right-hander Andrew Hillier each threw 51 pitches during their respective three innings, the maximum number of innings that would allow them to return to the mound on one day’s rest.
James Prescott then struck out two batters during a 1-2-3 seventh inning as the defending state champions finished off their 10th consecutive victory and improved their record to 15-2.
The trio combined for 12 strikeouts while yielding just four singles — two of them infield hits — and three walks.
“We really didn’t decide who was going to start until [Wednesday],” Bangor coach Jeff Fahey said. “Of course, you don’t want to start looking ahead and you need to take care of business so we decided to go with Trevor and if things went our way we’d pull the trigger and pull him after three and go with [Hillier] for three and fill in the seventh.
“Fortunately, we scored some runs in the second inning and that made the decision easier. I’ve done it before but not very often and it’s risky, but neither one of those kids have lost in two years so I had confidence they both could do it. We kept them both [around] 50 pitches so they both should be fresh for Saturday.”
Bangor pounded out nine hits to complement its shutout pitching and errorless defense, with six hits coming in the bottom of the second against Brunswick left-hander Charlie Lowell.
Sam Huston hit a leadoff single to left, reached second on an outfield error and scored the first run on Ben Crichton’s opposite-field single to second.
Kyle Stevenson also went the opposite way with the next pitch, singling to right to drive home Crichton.
Johnny Cote then lined a single off the glove of Brunswick third baseman John Parker, and an infield hit down the third-base line by Ryan Brookings loaded the bases.
Stevenson scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0 before DeLaite hit an RBI single to left and Jordan Derrah delivered the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to center.
Bangor added its final run an inning later when Derek Fournier hit a one-out single to left, advanced to second as Crichton was hit by a pitch and scored on Cote’s two-out single to center.
“We haven’t scored a lot of runs all year, it’s been one of the challenges we’ve had,” Brunswick coach Luke Potter said. “You have to credit Bangor, they came out early and they put some across and we didn’t respond. That’s the first time all year we haven’t scored a run. I don’t think this was the Brunswick baseball we wanted to play today, but that’s the way baseball goes.”
Brunswick’s best scoring threat came in the fourth when Elias Henze drew a leadoff walk and Parker beat out a high chopper toward third base for the Dragons’ first hit.
Zach Meggison then skied a popup that was administered under the infield fly rule — making the batter automatically out — but the ball drifted toward very shallow right field where it landed after Cote, the Bangor second baseman, lost it in the sun.
When the ball hit the ground both runners took off and advanced to second and third while there was some confusion about whether Meggison was safe or out because the ball had dropped in the outfield, but after a brief conversation among the game umpires the original infield fly rule call was maintained.
“It was called, I heard it called, and so probably that’s where it ends,” Potter said. “It was frustrating, but as will happen sometimes when you get pressed I’m not too proud to admit you start begging a little bit and we were just hoping for something to fall our way but it didn’t. I was trying to fight a bit there, I don’t normally but I was just trying to make something happen for us.”
Hillier then struck out the next two batters to strand Henze and Parker in scoring position.
