BANGOR, Maine — One of the great assets of youth often is the ability to relegate disappointment to the history books almost immediately.
For Edward Little of Auburn baseball catcher Brandon Varney, such adversity to consider could have been his team’s five-inning, no-hit loss to Oxford Hills of South Paris last Friday that knocked the Red Eddies from the unbeaten ranks.
Or it could have been his two previous plate appearances against Bangor ace Trevor DeLaite on Monday afternoon at Mansfield Stadium — a three-pitch strikeout and a comebacker to the mound.
Given one more chance, Varney forgot those travails and made some history of his own, belting an RBI triple with two outs in the top of the seventh as Edward Little edged Bangor 1-0 and sent the two-time defending Class A state champion Rams to their first loss of the spring.
Bangor and Edward Little — which began the day ranked 1-2 in Class A North — are both 13-1.
“That last game was just a bump on the radar, as coach [Dave] Jordan said,” said Varney. “We had a bad game, [Oxford Hills] had a good game, but it was on to Bangor for today. I’m just glad we came through.”
Varney’s blast to the left-center field gap came on a 1-0 pitch one out after DeLaite yielded his only walk of an otherwise dominant 81-pitch, 12-strikeout performance to Jared Norcross-Plourde with one down in the Edward Little seventh.
“I saw a fastball in a little bit, so I took it to the gap,” said Varney. “It’s my favorite pitch.”
That ended a streak of 39⅔ consecutive scoreless innings for DeLaite since he allowed a run before recording an out in his first inning of work this spring on April 20 during an 8-1 win over Oxford Hills.
It also led to just the second loss of DeLaite’s four-year varsity career, and first since a 2-1 defeat to Brewer during his freshman season in 2013 — when like in Monday’s game he pitched a complete-game two-hitter.
The University of Maine-bound DeLaite is 5-1 this spring, 20-2 in his varsity career.
“He’s so mechanically sound, the best pitcher in the state,” said Varney. “I’m just glad I got a pitch I could hit. That’s all I wanted.”
Varney and the rest of the Red Eddies weren’t sure they were ever going to get such a pitch to drive against DeLaite, who like Norcross-Plourde took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
After the Red Eddies’ first batter of the game reached on an error, the Bangor left-hander retired 17 consecutive batters before Austin Cox singled to center with two outs in the sixth — only to be picked off to end that inning.
Norcross-Plourde, meanwhile, scattered six walks, one hit and a hit batsman while throwing 115 pitches in 5⅔ innings, but the right-hander was aided by three double plays turned by an errorless Edward Little defense.
“Jared’s a competitor, and he battled without his best stuff today, but he made big pitches when he needed to,” said Edward Little coach Dave Jordan.
Bangor runners reached third base in the fifth and sixth innings, but both times after two outs.
Jesse Colford drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, was sacrificed to second by Nick Cowperthwaite and reached third as George Payne was thrown out at first base on a third strike in the dirt. Norcross-Plourde got Ben Crichton to ground out to third to end the threat.
Kyle Stevenson broke up Norcross-Plourde’s no-hit bid with a one-out single to left-center in the sixth and stole second before reaching third when Edward Little rightfielder C.J. Jipson ranged well toward the right-field line to flag down a deep fly ball by DeLaite.
Derek Fournier then walked before left-hander Damien St. Pierre (5-0) came on to get an inning-ending groundout.
Cowperthwaite grounded a one-out single to center in the Bangor seventh, then advanced to third on back-to-back wild pitches before St. Pierre struck out Payne and got Crichton to ground out to secure Edward Little’s second one-run victory over Bangor in as many years.
“Tip your cap to those guys because they made the play when they had to and we had opportunities and didn’t get it done,” said Bangor coach Jeff Fahey. “We tried about everything to score one run and we just couldn’t do it.”
