BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor High School Rams were one pitch away from stranding the bases loaded in the third inning of a 1-0 game against archrival Brewer in their Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal Thursday.
But Lilli Wiseman, down 0-2 in the count, wound up drawing a bases-loaded walk and Kylie Cunningham and Skylar Cassum followed with two-run singles as the second-seeded Rams ousted No. 7 Brewer for the second straight year, 7-3.
Wiseman belted a solo homer in the fifth inning as Bangor built a 7-0 lead and held off the determined Witches, who scored three times in the sixth and had the bases loaded in the seventh before Cassum induced a game-ending fly ball to left.
Bangor, now 14-3, will host No. 3 Cony High of Augusta, also 14-3, in Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal. The teams split during the regular season.
Brewer, which had dropped 18-1 and 14-1 games to Bangor during the regular season, finished up at 9-8.
Cassum pitched six innings of two-hit shutout ball to pick up her seventh win in nine decisions.
Emily Reilly came on to pitch at the outset of the sixth inning and Brewer pushed across three unearned runs off her.
Cassum pitched the seventh inning and, after getting the first two outs, a Delaney Davis base hit and two infield errors loaded the bases before Cassum got the flyout.
Senior righthander Cassum said she was pleased with her performance.
“I kept the ball low in the zone unless I needed to put it up high,” Cassum said. “My changeup worked really well.”
“She threw well,” Brewer senior catcher Sam Pellegrino said. “She always throws hard and she hit her spots.”
Cassum struck out nine and walked three while throwing 89 pitches, including 61 strikes.
Bangor took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the second on a two-out infield error, Cassum’s base hit and Megan Conner’s RBI infield single.
In the third inning, Emily Gilmore drew a one-out walk and raced to third on Cordelia Stewart’s sharp single to center.
Following a strikeout, Reilly drew a walk and Wiseman worked her run-producing walk after fouling off a pair of 3-2 pitches.
“I wanted to hit the ball but a walk was a productive at-bat,” Wiseman said.
Cunningham then drilled the first pitch to center to drive in a pair of runs.
“I like to hit the first pitch. If I get deep in the count, I tend to think too much,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham stole second and Cassum poked an opposite-field into short right field to drive in the final two runs.
“We’ve rallied with two outs the whole season. We have a two-out mentality,” Cassum said.
“They’re a really good team. They can hit anything even if it’s not a strike,” Brewer pitcher Davis said.
Wiseman belted her second homer of the season, a shot to left center field, to open the fifth.
But Brewer made things interesting in the sixth.
Singles by Emily Lord and Davis greeted Reilly and an infield throwing error allowed the first run to score.
Sydney Hewes’ one-out groundout delivered the second run before Brooke Richards ripped a RBI single to left. A walk loaded the bases before Reilly got out of it with a strikeout.
“I was very happy with the way we played,” Brewer coach Skip Estes said. “We had our chances.”
Davis said the Witches came into the game with confidence and prepared to compete and they did just that.
“We knew they were going to get their hits but we held them to seven runs,” said Davis, who pitched well in defeat, allowing nine hits with four strikeouts and four walks.
“She pitched very well. She kept us off-balance,” Cunningham said.
Cassum and Conner had two singles each for Bangor and Cunningham, Cassum and Wiseman had two RBIs each.
Davis had a double and two singles for Brewer.