BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor High School baseball team has won the last two Class A state championships, and nothing the Rams have done so far this spring suggests that they will be anything less than a top contender to win it all again when postseason play begins next week.
Coach Jeff Fahey’s club capped off a 15-1 regular season Monday evening as senior Trevor DeLaite pitched a six-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory over Brewer at Mansfield Stadium.
Bangor is expected to be the No. 1 seed in Class A North when the final Heal point standings are released later this week while Brewer (10-6) will be either fourth or fifth, setting up a potential third meeting of the season in the regional semifinals if both rivals win their quarterfinal games.
Bangor’s second victory of the season over Brewer also was the Rams’ second straight win by shutout since its lone loss, a 1-0 decision to Edward Little of Auburn last Monday.
“I think that loss helped us refocus and re-examine what our goals are and how we’re going to get there,” said Fahey. “They’ve thrown two shutouts since then against Messalonskee (of Oakland) and Brewer so you can’t ask for any more from the kids, and I know they will show up tomorrow ready to practice. This group is unbelievable that way.”
DeLaite (6-1) walked as many Brewer batters — four — during his 101-pitch effort as he had in his 40 previous innings on the mound this year while also yielding a season high in hits.
But the University of Maine-bound lefthander escaped any more substantial damage by retiring six of the seven leadoff batters he faced and allowing only three Brewer hitters to reach base with less than two outs.
That factor proved critical as no Brewer runner reached third base — thanks in part to an errorless Bangor defense that threw out three Witches on the basepaths.
“I definitely try to get the leadoff batter, and if I do that the chances definitely go up of having a quality inning,” said DeLaite, who picked off one runner and also finished the night with nine strikeouts.
Brewer senior Matt Pushard (3-2) took the loss despite yielding just one earned run on five hits with 10 strikeouts and just one walk while throwing 98 pitches.
Bangor scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the first to stake DeLaite to a 2-0 lead.
Kyle Stevenson led off with an opposite-field single to right and Derek Fournier drew a one-out walk, then Jesse Colford advanced them to third and second bases with a groundout to second base.
Peter Kemble then hit a grounder just to the right of the mound that Pushard couldn’t handle, and when Pushard then tried to scoop the ball up and direct it toward first baseman Jack Corey it got away again as both runners scored.
Bangor made it 3-0 in the third as Fournier reached on an infield hit to shortstop with one out, took second base on a passed ball and scored when Kemble grounded a two-out single up the middle.
Colford led off the Bangor sixth with a wind-blown triple deep down the left-field line and scored on a wild pitch to extend the margin to 4-0.
Corey and Kobe Rogerson were the game’s lone repeat hitters, each with two singles for Brewer.
