BANGOR, Maine — Andrew Hillier has a pretty accurate handle on the keys to a successful baseball team.
“Usually you don’t get beat when you hit well, pitch well and field well,” said the Rams’ senior pitcher-first baseman. “That’s the formula right there.”
The defending Class A state champions executed that formula perhaps as well as they have all spring Saturday afternoon while defeating Messalonskee of Oakland 9-3 in an Eastern Maine semifinal at Mansfield Stadium.
Hillier and starter Trevor DeLaite combined to limit the fourth-seeded Eagles to three hits, while Bangor’s offense pounded out 12 hits and its defense played without an error for the second straight postseason game.
“Today I just thought our kids were really focused,” said Bangor coach Jeff Fahey.
Top-seeded Bangor (16-2) will take an 11-game winning streak into Wednesday’s Eastern Class A final against No. 3 Brewer. The Maine Principals’ Association will announce its decision on Monday on whether the game is being moved from Augusta to Bangor..
Messalonskee ended its season at 14-4.
The University of Southern Maine-bound Hillier earned the pitching win by retiring all 10 batters he faced — four by strikeout — in relief of DeLaite, who retired the first 10 batters he faced before yielding three runs on two hits and two walks in the top of the fourth after Bangor had built a 7-0 lead.
DeLaite, Jordan Derrah, Sam Huston, Ben Crichton and Ryan Brookings each contributed two hits to Bangor’s offense, with DeLaite, Crichton, Brookings and Huston each adding two RBIs as the Rams reached Messalonskee ace Nick Mayo for seven runs over 2 ⅔ innings — including five runs in the bottom of the third.
“Pregame Nick was on point, all of his pitches were hitting,” said Messalonskee coach Peter McLaughlin. “But he was having trouble locating his curveball early so they were sitting fastball. But even then they hit the ball hard a couple of times and then it was bleeders and flares, but that’s baseball and they executed when it mattered.”
DeLaite lined a one-out double to right center and scored on Huston’s two-out bloop single down the right-field line to give Bangor a 1-0 lead in the first. Crichton drew a leadoff walk in the second, advanced to second on a balk and scored on a throwing error by Mayo after an infield hit by Brookings to make it 2-0 an inning later.
Bangor had forced the 6-foot-8 right-hander to throw 54 pitches through the first two innings alone, then forced Mayo from the game by scoring five runs on five hits in the third.
Huston doubled home a run and Crichton singled home a run before back-to-back walks to Kyle Stevenson and Johnny Cote loaded the bases and prompted Messalonskee to turn to top reliever Jake Dexter.
Brookings hit Dexter’s first pitch, an outside fastball, down the right-field line for a two-run double to extend Bangor’s lead to 6-0.
“I was just looking for a pitch I could hit and he gave me the pitch I wanted and I hit it down the line,” said Brookings. “If there’s a good pitch on the first pitch I always go for it.”
Cote scored the final run of the inning as Derrah beat out an infield hit to shortstop.
Messalonskee, which was seeking its fourth straight appearance in the Eastern A final, got to DeLaite in the fourth, with Jonathan Wilkie’s two-out, two-run double to right the key blow.
But Hillier came on the quiet the Eagles the rest of the way, requiring just 29 pitches over his 3⅓ innings.
“I love coming in relief because I can see from (playing) first base the tendencies of the batters,” said Hiller, who has been primarily a starter the last two seasons after pitching in relief as a sophomore. “I just looked to throw strikes and pitch to contact and not strike everybody out.”
Bangor added insurance runs in the fourth and fifth innings on RBI singles by Crichton and Derrah.
“That was one of the more complete games we’ve played all year,” said Fahey, whose team avenged an 8-6 loss to Messalonskee during the regular season. “We had great pitching, and other than the one little stumble we had in the fourth inning we really held them at bay.”
