AUGUSTA, Maine — The postgame celebration was as matter-of-fact as the performance on the field was dominant for the Bangor High School baseball team Tuesday.
Trevor DeLaite was backed by errorless defense as he pitched a complete-game three-hitter and the Rams reached base 23 different times as Jeff Fahey’s club won its third consecutive Class A regional title with an 8-0 victory over Edward Little of Auburn at Morton Field.
“It would be easy to get complacent with everything,” said DeLaite, a senior lefthander who struck out nine batters and walked just two while throwing an economical 79 pitches. “But you’ve got to know that not many teams do this three times in a row or even get here three times in a row, so it’s definitely something special.”
Top-ranked Bangor (18-1) will try to make its season even more special when the Rams play for their third straight state championship in a 1 p.m. start Saturday at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish. Bangor will face No. 1 Falmouth (19-0), which beat second-ranked South Portland 4-2 in the South final.
Edward Little, the No. 2 seed in the North and the only team to defeat Bangor this year, ended its season at 17-2.
DeLaite (8-1) faced only one minor threat when Edward Little put runners on first and third with two outs in the top of the sixth, but a four-pitch strikeout of Red Eddies cleanup hitter Drew Lashua took care of that en route to Bangor’s ninth pitching shutout of the spring and fourth in its last five games.
“I was able to just pound the zone and get ahead of the batters most of the time,” said DeLaite, who now has struck out 90 batters and yielded three earned runs in 61 innings. “I had great defense behind me, which always makes it easier.”
Bangor’s offense steadily pressured EL righthander Jared Norcross-Plourde, who had pitched a 1-0 victory over the Rams in their regular season meeting on May 23.
Back-to-back singles by Kyle Stevenson and DeLaite opened the bottom of the first, and while Bangor didn’t score in that inning the Rams took control with two runs in the second and three more in the third.
Key to that effort was the depth of Bangor’s attack. The Rams’ five-through-nine hitters — Peter Kemble, Nick Cowperthwaite, Gary Farnham, George Payne and Ryan Brookings — combined for seven hits, eight runs scored and four RBIs.
“We feel like we have a lot of people who can perform in big situations and that showed today with some clutch hits out of some different guys,” said Stevenson, who singled twice and reached base in all five of his plate appearances from the leadoff spot.
Bangor scored two unearned runs in the second, then got an RBI single from Payne and an opposite-field two-run single to right by Brookings to extend its lead to 5-0 in the third.
“Last game when we faced him I was pulling the ball a lot so they figured out I was a pull hitter,” said Brookings. “I waited on that outside pitch and took it to right field.”
Brookings added a sacrifice fly during Bangor’s three-run uprising in the bottom of the sixth, a rally that began with back-to-back singles by Kemble and Cowperthwaite and a misplayed sacrifice bunt by Farnham that brought a run home. Cowperthwaite then scored on a wild pitch before Brookings’ fly ball to center plated Farnham with the game’s final run.
Kemble, Cowperthwaite and Payne each added two singles to Bangor’s 10-hit offense.
“It’s a team effort,” said Brookings. “We all contribute and we’ve all been in this position before so we know what our roles are and we just need to get the job done.”
A job well done resulted in Bangor’s 11th consecutive postseason victory, but the Rams hope there’s still one more win to come.
“It’s special every time,” said Stevenson, “but we’re just looking forward to the next game.
“That’s been our goal all season.”
