BANGOR, Maine — For both the Bangor High School and Coffee News Comrades American Legion baseball teams, the bottom line had been the same since the start of their 2014 seasons.
Three Class A state championships on the high school level, two and counting in Legion play has left this summer’s Coffee News squad with the highest of expectations both from within and from the outside.
“It’s my last time I’ll ever play in a Bangor uniform, and I definitely want to go out on top,” said infielder Sam Huston after his two-run single in the bottom of the ninth lifted the second-seeded Comrades to a 7-6 victory over No. 4 Skowhegan in the Zone 1 Legion tournament on Friday at Husson University.
“We’ve won a lot recently, so we know how good that feeling is, and we definitely don’t want to be the Bangor team that ends it, we want to keep that tradition going,” he said.
But no team is exactly the same from year to year, and the city’s Coffee News club is no exception — particularly with the state’s 2016 high school Mr. Baseball, Trevor DeLaite, now playing in a wooden-bat collegiate league in New Hampshire.
“This is a different team than the high school team with the addition of some guys and missing some of our high school guys,” said Coffee News shortstop Kyle Stevenson. “But we have the same mentality of going against every team the same way and working hard, and I think that’s why we get wins.”
The latest win required considerable perseverance, particularly after Skowhegan took a 6-5 lead with three runs in the top of the eighth thanks to RBI singles by Evan Bess and Brendan Curran and a suicide squeeze by Sean Whalen — the team’s second successful run-producing bunt in three innings.
But left-hander Matt Smith came on to work a 1-2-3 top of the ninth for Coffee News, and when Ryan Brookings singled sharply off the new artificial mound at the Winkin Complex to open the bottom of the inning, the tying run was aboard and seemingly all of the Comrades’ championship-game experience surged to the forefront.
Stevenson sacrificed Brookings to second, and Peter Kemble singled and stole second to bring up Huston, the 2015 Bangor High School graduate who batted .307 in 40 games this spring as a freshman at Husson.
Huston soon lined a curveball into the right-center field gap to score both runners and advance Coffee News to a winners’ bracket matchup at 4 p.m. Saturday against top-seeded Post 51 of Oakland (17-5), a 5-2 winner over the No. 6 Acadians (8-15) in Friday’s second game.
“I kind of knew it was coming,” said Huston. “All the pitchers I saw today were throwing curves late in the count, so I was sitting back waiting for it. I told myself to drive it up the middle and found the gap.”
It was Huston’s first hit in five at-bats.
“Sam Huston’s been in that situation a thousand times, and he’s a warrior. He’s a winner,” said Morris.
Skowhegan (14-9) will face the Acadians in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Skowhegan outhit Bangor 12-7 and had at least one hit in each of the first eight innings, but Kemble escaped major damage by striking out seven and walking no one in his 7⅓ innings on the mound for the Comrades.
Derek Fournier singled twice and walked as Coffee News’ lone repeat hitter, and Chase Malloy had three singles, Dustin Crawford tripled and singled, and Bess singled twice for Skowhegan.
Kemble struck out the side in the top of the second, but Skowhegan scratched out a two-out run to take a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Bess.
Whalen opened the Skowhegan fourth with a bunt single and reached second on an overthrow by Kemble. A Brendan Curran groundout to the right side moved Whalen to third, and Malloy followed with a sacrifice fly to right to make it 2-0.
Malloy did not allow a hit through the first four innings before Coffee News turned three hits, three walks and an error into a five-run rally to take its first lead.
Fournier broke up Malloy’s no-hit bid with a soft line single that eluded Huston at second base before Malloy walked three of the next four batters, including Tyler Parke and Brookings with the bases loaded to tie the game.
Nick Cowperthwaite scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch before Stevenson rapped an RBI single and an RBI fielder’s-choice grounder by Kemble gave Coffee News a 5-2 cushion.
Skowhegan got one run back in the sixth when Crawford hit a leadoff triple to right and scored on Nate Ames’ suicide squeeze.
In Friday’s second game, Jacob Trask allowed just a run and two hits in seven innings to lead Post 51 to the victory. He walked four and struck out five before Danny Pooler came on to give up one run in the final two innings.
Post 51 used a five-run third inning to support Trask, highlighted by Connor Garland’s two-single after Trevor Gettig and Jonathon Wilkie executed a double steal to advance to third and second.
Jared Cunningham contributed a sacrifice fly in the inning, Danny Pooler stole home and Derek Bowen had an RBI single.
Garland finished with a double and two singles while Pooler, Bowen, Tyler Lewis and Colby Dexter each chipped in with two. Lewis’ leadoff double started the big inning.
Jake Keenan sparked the Acadians with two singles and Hank Vinal drove in a run.
Skowhegan (Post 16) 010 011 03 — 6 12 1
Bangor Coffee News 000 050 002 — 7 7 3
Malloy, Vigue (5), Berry (7), Curran (8) and Stinson, Bess (8); Kemble, Cowperthwaite (8), Smith (9) and Fournier
Acadians 100 000 010 — 2 4 1
Oakland (Post 51) 005 000 00x — 5 12 3
Slayton, Clark (8) and Baron; Trask, Pooler (8) and Gettig
