BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor Coffee News Comrades’ pitching dominance over the state American Legion baseball tournament continued Friday night as Ethan Stoddard and Zach Cowperthwaite combined for a 2-0 shutout victory over Yankee Ford of South Portland in a winner’s bracket game at Husson University.
The shutout was the third straight in the tournament for coach Dave Morris’ club, which at 3-0 is the last unbeaten team in the double-elimination event and has clinched a spot in Sunday’s championship round with the victory.
Bangor Coffee News, now 17-5 overall, is set to face once-beaten Coastal Landscape of Portland at 4 p.m. Saturday after defending state champion Yankee Ford plays Bessey Motors of South Paris in an elimination game at 1 p.m.
Stoddard, a recent Old Town High School graduate, scattered seven hits over eight full innings before reaching the 120-pitch limit. The right-hander struck out five batters, walked four and hit a batter while improving his postseason record this summer to 2-0.
Cowperthwaite allowed two baserunners in the ninth but also recorded two strikeouts to pick up the save while extending the Bangor pitching staff’s scoreless streak during the tournament to 27 innings and enabling the Comrades to earn a measure of revenge for last year’s 5-4 loss to Yankee Ford in the Legion state championship game.
Stoddard and Tyler Parke each had two hits for Bangor Coffee News, with Stoddard and Jesse Colford producing the game’s only RBIs.
Bangor also played its third straight errorless game of the tournament, with first baseman Noah Missbrenner leading that effort by scooping several throws off the artificial turf at the Winkin Complex.
Marshall Peterson was the lone repeat hitter for Yankee Ford, contributing two singles from the No. 9 spot in the batting order.
Yankee Ford also got a quality pitching performance from starter Brandon Burnell, a Mr. Baseball finalist from Sacopee Valley High School in South Hiram.
The righthander worked 6 2/3 innings before leaving the game after reaching the 120-pitch limit — like Stoddard he finished his final batter with 121. Burnell allowed one earned run while scattering seven hits with three strikeouts and three walks.
Bangor Coffee News took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning as Austin Sheehan drew a leadoff walk, moved to third base on a double to right-center field by Ryan Brookings and scored on Stoddard’s one-out ground single to left.
Yankee Ford threatened in the bottom of the inning as Alex Livingston drew a leadoff walk and Peterson singled to left, then loaded the bases with two out when Ben Conti beat out a slow chopper to shortstop.
But Stoddard emerged unscathed, getting cleanup hitter Arlo Pike to ground to shortstop with Zach Ireland tagging second base for the inning-ending forceout.
Bangor Coffee News added an insurance run off in the top of the ninth off Yankee Ford reliever Nate Ingalls.
Parke hit a leadoff single to left-center, with a subsequent intentional walk to Cowperthwaite and another walk to Missbrenner leading to a sacrifice fly by Jesse Colford that extended the Comrades’ lead to 2-0.
Coffee News 000 010 001 — 2 8 0
Yankee Ford 000 000 000 — 0 8 2
Stoddard, Cowperthwaite (9); Burnell, Ingalls (7)
LOB—Coffee News 14, Yankee Ford 13. E—Marshall Peterson, Riley Hasson. 2B—Ryan Brookings, Ethan Stoddard. HBP—Ben Crichton, D.J. Shea. SACF—Jesse Colford. SACB—Ethan Stoddard. SB—Ethan Stoddard.
