BANGOR, Maine — Bangor High School’s current run of back-to-back state championships has featured stout starting pitching, with the likes of Justin Courtney, Andrew Hillier and Trevor DeLaite all coming up big during postseason play.
Now as the Rams continue their pursuit of a third straight title, add Peter Kemble’s name to that list.
The junior righthander pitched a nearly flawless game Saturday, scattering four hits during a complete-game effort while top-seeded Bangor scored all its runs in its final two at-bats to defeat No. 4 Brewer 5-0 in a Class A North semifinal at Mansfield Stadium.
Kemble struck out five batters, walked no one and effectively worked the corners of the plate as 54 of his 70 pitches went for strikes during his 1-hour, 14-minute pitchers’ duel with Brewer junior Jack Corey.
“My fastball was right on whenever I wanted it to be and my curveball was good, too,” said Kemble, now 6-0. “Something I haven’t used a lot this year but I turned on today was my changeup, and that felt really nice.
“Today I just focused on pitching to contact and letting them put it in play because we have such a good defense behind us.”
Kemble’s performance marked Bangor’s eighth shutout victory of the season, and the Rams have yielded just 20 runs overall this spring while compiling the 17-1 record it will take into Tuesday’s 4:30 p.m. regional final at Morton Field in Augusta against No. 2 Edward Little of Auburn, a 5-4 semifinal winner over No. 6 Mount Ararat of Topsham.
“We knew Peter was going to get this game,” Bangor coach Jeff Fahey said, “and his last two regular-season starts we’re not quite this impressive but they were very good so we had confidence that if he threw strikes and didn’t get his pitch count up he’d be fine.”
Kemble faced his biggest threat with one out in the fourth when Matt Pushard lined an opposite-field double to right field and Alex Maxsimic followed with an infield single on a chopper that bounced over Bangor third baseman Jesse Colford’s head.
But Rams’ shortstop Kyle Stevenson short-hopped a sinking liner by Alex Brooks and fed the ball to second baseman George Payne to start an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
“When we turned that double play I think that kind of sealed it for [Kemble],” said Fahey. “He thought, ‘I could just throw it over the plate and my defense will defend,’ and that’s what he did.”
Kemble needed his pinpoint accuracy to keep pace with Corey, who like Kemble found great success throwing his curve on the inside corner of the plate to right-handed batters for strikes.
Corey retired the first 10 batters he faced and took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fifth before some control issues set up Bangor’s big inning.
Kemble drew a leadoff walk and Nick Cowperthwaite was hit by a pitch while pulling back on a sacrifice attempt. Gary Farnham similarly was hit by a pitch to load the bases and force Brewer’s infield defense to move in as an effort to cut down a baserunner at the plate.
“You’re late in the game so you’ve got to stop a run,” said Brewer coach Dana Corey. “Early on you’ll keep your infield back and give up that run because you’ve got a lot of at-bats left. But when you’ve only got two at-bats left you’ve got to try to keep that run from scoring.”
That ultimately created more hitting room for Payne, who pushed an opposite-field single through the shortstop hole for the Rams’ first hit and run of the game as Kemble scored easily from third.
“I just knew that with no outs all I had to do was hit the ball hard and put it in play. That’s really what my mindset was, to try and do my job and get a run across the plate,” said Payne. “There was a big hole between short and third and I got a curveball outside and shot it through.”
Cowperthwaite scored on a wild pitch before a one-out walk to Stevenson reloaded the bases. DeLaite then grounded a two-run single up the middle to make it 4-0.
Bangor added an insurance run in the sixth as Colford walked, was sacrificed to second by Kemble and advanced to third on a groundout to the right side by Cowperthwaite before scoring on a wild pitch.
Jack Corey finished with a complete-game three-hitter that included five strikeouts and four walks for Brewer, which rebounded from a 1-4 start to finish with an 11-7 record.
