BREWER, Maine — Josiah Cyr admitted to mulling the finality of high school postseason play before he and the Brewer baseball team hosted John Bapst of Bangor in a Class B North quarterfinal at Heddericg Field on Thursday afternoon.
As one of only four seniors on the roster, that win-or-go-home sentiment was particularly in focus for the Witches’ pitching ace with graduation day fast approaching.
“Before the game I thought about that and was like, ‘We have to win this, I don’t want it to end here,’” said Cyr.
So the right-hander went out and did something about it, taking a perfect game into the sixth inning and finishing with a four-hitter as No. 2 Brewer held off the upset-minded Crusaders 2-1.
Cyr threw 56 strikes among his 77 pitches — including first-pitch strikes to 22 of the 24 batters he faced — to outduel John Bapst junior Alec Gagnon.
“I think I kept myself contained, which is a big thing for me,” said Cyr. “I kept myself straight mentally and I liked the (pace) I was going at. I thought efficiency was key.”
Cyr (4-4) struck out nine batters and walked no one. He went to a three-ball count just twice.
“Josiah pitched his best game,” said Brewer coach Dana Corey.
The win advances Brewer (12-5) to regional semifinal at 11 a.m. Saturday against No. 6 Gardiner, a 4-1 winner over No. 3 Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor. The Witches defeated Gardiner 10-3 in their season opener on April 17.
No. 10 John Bapst, which upended No. 7 Old Town in the preliminary round, finished with a 9-9 record.
But the Crusaders didn’t go easily despite spotting Brewer a 2-0 lead through three innings and being unable to generate a baserunner until Joe Archambault singled to right-center to lead off the top of the sixth inning.
Pinch-runner Max Chadwick scored John Bapst’s lone run later in the inning on Gagnon’s one-out single to center before the Witches came up with their biggest defensive play of the game, an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.
John Bapst then put runners on first and second with one out in the seventh, but Cyr posted back-to-back strikeouts to cap off the victory.
“We had our chances,” said John Bapst coach Jason O’Reilly. “It took us a couple of times through the order to put some good swings on him but our guys are capable and the second and third time around I thought we looked a little better and put ourselves in position to do something but we just didn’t execute when we needed to.”
Brewer scored an unearned run in the bottom of the first as leadoff batter Kobe Rogerson reached on an infield error, stole second and scored on two of Gagnon’s four wild pitches.
The Witches made it 2-0 in the third. Rogerson led off with a bunt single, raced to third base on Cyr’s single to center and scored one out later on Levi Williamson’s one-out, opposite-field single to left.
Cyr advanced to third base on the play and Williamson reached second on a groundout by Evan Andrews, but Gagnon averted further damage by inducing an inning-ending flyout to right.
Brewer stranded eight baserunners compared to two for John Bapst.
“We had ample opportunities,” said Corey, “but they played good defense and their pitcher did a really nice job.”
Gagnon (3-3) scattered five hits during his 107-pitch, complete-game effort with five strikeouts and three walks.
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