ORONO, Maine — It’s back to the grind for the Bangor High School baseball program.
That grind, which features pitching, defense and mastery of the offensive fundamentals, has led the Rams to the the last four Class A state championships, and a similar approach has coach Dave Morris’ club off to a 3-0 start this spring after Monday’s 4-1 victory over Brewer at the University of Maine.
The game, a home costest for Brewer, was played at Mahaney Diamond because the Witches’ home field is not yet ready for game action.
Bangor’s leadoff batter reached base in six of the seven innings against Brewer — with a 12-pitch strikeout by Tyler Parke to open the game the lone exception.
Bangor also successfully executed two hit-and-run plays and had two sacrifice bunts and a sacrifice fly to help generate four hard-earned runs off Brewer right-hander Josiah Cyr, who scattered six hits over five innings.
“I thought we did a better job at the plate today in terms of having a presence and understanding the situations,” said Morris. “We hit-and-ran very well. Their pitcher was very good. He had a good fastball so we really didn’t want to straight steal steal but our guys did a great job of putting it in play and finding some holes.”
That was more than enough support for Bangor junior right-hander Noah Missbrenner, who yielded just one run on seven hits through five-plus innings in his first varsity start on the mound before getting six-out relief help from sophomore lefty Carson Prouty.
“I really didn’t have my best stuff today, I was leaving a lot of stuff up,” said Missbrenner, who also had two RBI singles from the No. 3 spot in Bangor’s batting order. “I have a great defense behind me. I trust them so I just try to make them put the ball in play and let the defense work.”
Bangor also backed its pitchers with errorless defense that included two double plays, the second on a liner to Missbrenner at first base with a runner just off the bag to end the game.
“When your pitchers are throwing strikes and getting outs and your defense is playing like we’ve been playing, good things are going to happen. That’s really where it’s at,” said Morris.
Brewer (2-1), which has just one returning starter this year as it transitions from Class A to Class B, got a double and a single from cleanup hitter Levi Williamson and two singles from first baseman Evan Andrews.
“We’ve come along,” said Witches’ coach Dana Corey, whose team has not yet practiced outside this spring. “I thought they competed well today. We hit the ball, we had seven hits. We just didn’t hit with runners on base and Bangor moved runners along and scored when they needed to.”
Bangor scratched out the game’s first run in the top of the third.
No. 9 batter Charlie Budd drew a leadoff walk and and reached third on a sacrifice by Parke and a Zach Ireland groundout before Missbrenner drove a 1-0 pitch the opposite way for an RBI single to left.
Brewer tied the game in the bottom of the third when Williamson pulled a one-out double down the right-field line to drive home Cyr, who had led off with an infield hit.
Zach Murray singled to right to start the Bangor fourth and took third on Nick Canarr’s hit-and-run single up the middle. Murray was thrown out at home on Jacob Munroe’s grounder to third but Canaar — who had stolen second base — took third on the fielder’s choice and scored the go-ahead run on freshman James Neel’s sacrifice fly to right.
Missbrenner singled up the middle in the top of the fifth to drive home Parke — who had reached on an infield hit and stole second — and give Bangor a two-run lead. Missbrenner then scored to make it 4-1 when Murray’s hit-and-run drive to right field went all the way to the fence for an RBI triple.
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