BANGOR, Maine — Alex Brooks pitched a complete-game five-hitter Friday afternoon as No. 3 Brewer edged No. 4 R.H. Foster of Hampden 2-1 in an elimination game of the American Legion Zone 1 baseball tournament at Husson University.
Brewer (15-6) advances to play the loser of Friday night’s winners’ bracket game between No. 1 Post 51 of Oakland and No. 2 Bangor in an elimination contest at 4 p.m. Saturday.
R.H. Foster ended its season with a 13-8 record.
Brooks struck out just one batter while walking three in his nine-inning performance, but he was backed by a defense that made just one error.
Brooks outdueled R.H. Foster’s Nick Guerrette, who struck out three batters and walked no one before getting eighth-inning relief help from Alex McKenney.
R.H. Foster took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning as Jackson Gilmore hit a two-out single and scored on Tyler Beaton’s double.
Guerrette retired the first 12 batters he faced in the game before Alex Maxsimic singled to open the Brewer fifth. Brooks’ fielder’s choice grounder forced Maxsimic out at second, but Brooks came around to score the tying run on an RBI single by Carter DeRedin.
Brewer scored the go-ahead run in the seventh when Maxsimic hit a leadoff single, stole second base and scored on Dylan Soper’s double.
Maxsimic finished with two singles for Brewer, while Gilmore had three singles for R.H. Foster.
In Thursday night’s late game, A.J. Godin scattered four hits over 8⅓ innings as top-seeded Post 51 of Oakland defeated No. 4 R.H. Foster of Hampden 5-1.
Godin, a recent Waterville Senior High School graduate, yielded only singles by Zach Nash in the second and fourth innings and ninth-inning singles by Tyler Beaton and Casey Sudbeck while striking out six batters and walking three before getting ninth-inning relief help from Devin Warren.
Warren entered the game with the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate, but needed just two pitches to get Nash to hit into a game-ending 1-2-3 double play.
Danny Pooler and Jared Cunningham each doubled and singled to pace Post 51’s 11-hit attack, while Jake Dexter added two singles. Pooler and Dexter each had two RBIs.
R.H. Foster jumped out to a 1-0 lead against Post 51 in the top of the first as Jackson Gilmore drew a leadoff walk, reached third after a throwing error on Beaton’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Michael Turner’s double-play grounder.
R.H. Foster starter Billy Campbell retired the side in order in the bottom of the first, but Post 51 scored four runs on six hits in the bottom of the second to take the lead for good.
Reliever Brandon Smith went on to pitch six innings for R.H. Foster, yielding no runs on four hits with one strikeout and three walks.
(Friday Afternoon)
R.H. Foster (13-8) 001 000 000 — 1 5 0
Brewer (15-6) 000 010 00x — 2 6 1
Guerrette, McKenney (8) and Farmer; Brooks and Maxsimic
(Thursday Night)
R.H. Foster (13-7) 100 000 000 — 1 4 1
Post 51 (15-4) 041 000 00x — 5 11 2
Campbell, Smith (3) and Farmer; Godin, Warren (9) and Gettig
