BREWER, Maine — The two-time defending Class A state champion Bangor High School baseball team relied on pitching and defense to open the new season with vacation-week victories over Oxford Hills of South Paris and Lewiston.
The Rams added offense to that winning formula on Monday.
Senior shortstop Kyle Stevenson lined the game’s first pitch to the right-center field gap for a triple, and coach Jeff Fahey’s club went on to pound out 13 hits en route to a 7-3 victory over Brewer at Heddericg Field.
Each of Bangor’s first four batters — Stevenson, Trevor DeLaite, Derek Fournier and Nick Cowperthwaite — swung at the first pitch from Brewer righthander Alex Brooks, producing a three hits and a nearly instant 2-0 lead as the start of a four-run, five-hit uprising that ultimately was all the offense the unbeaten Rams required.
“That’s the philosophy the coaches have been talking about, to just to go up and think swing,” said Stevenson, who had two hits and scored twice from the leadoff spot in Bangor’s batting order. “Don’t think to get the perfect pitch but if you can drive it just hit it.
“When we see a fastball over the plate, we know we can drive it. We don’t want to watch those go by.”
Bangor used an RBI single by Fournier in the top of the second to make it 5-2 after Brewer got an RBI triple by Alex Maxsimic and a run-scoring single by Brooks in its first at-bat.
Brewer (0-3) closed within 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth, only to have a potentially larger rally thwarted when two runners were cut down on the basepaths.
Bangor made the Witches pay, getting two-out RBI singles by Fournier and Cowperthwaite in the sixth to regain a four-run cushion before pitching ace DeLaite came on in relief to retire all six batters he faced — five by strikeout.
“In practice [assistant coach Dave] Morris was saying that we’ve been taking a lot of good pitches, a lot of fastballs,” said Fournier, who had three singles and two RBIs. “He said to go up there and swing at the first fastball you see, and it definitely paid off today.”
Bangor was not the only team encouraged by its offensive play in this first meeting of these rivals on the diamond since the Rams scratched out a 1-0 victory in last spring’s Eastern A championship game.
Coach Dana Corey’s Witches, limited to four hits in each of its first two games — road losses last week to Edward Little of Auburn and Oxford Hills that totaled nearly 500 miles — broke through for eight hits, including two by Maxsimic.
“The first two games we didn’t hit the ball, and defensively we made some errors,” Brewer senior shortstop Logan Rogerson said. “Today I felt like everyone started hitting the ball. We had some runners on base and scored some runs.
“We’ll be fine. We were in this position last year. We were 1-2 and made it to the Eastern Maine championship, so we’ll be back.”
Cowperthwaite scattered those eight Brewer hits while striking out one batter and walking two during his 78-pitch effort over five innings.
“Nick was hitting his spots today,” said Fournier. “He was missing a little inside, but other than that he was right on and making them hit the ball and our defense made the plays.”
