BANGOR, Maine — It was a memorable Friday for the Glanville-True brothers.
Senior center fielder Gavin Glanville-True and his junior brother Owen combined for seven hits to pace a 15-hit attack and lead the Bangor High School baseball team to a 10-5 victory over previously undefeated Oxford Hills of South Paris at Mansfield Stadium.
In a battle between the top two teams in the Heal Points standings in Class A North, Bangor improved to 8-1 while Oxford Hills fell to 6-1.
Bangor has now won four in a row and scored at least 10 runs in all four.
Gavin Glanville-True had four singles in five at-bats, drove in two runs and scored twice and brother Owen went 3-for-4 with a triple and scored three times.
“The brothers really had quite a day,” said Bangor coach David Morris.
The brothers said it was the first time they have ever collected seven hits in a game between them at any level.
“Seven hits … that’s not too bad,” Owen said with a grin. “I haven’t been hitting super well so a game like this feels really good.”
“We were just trying to do our job every time at the plate,” said Gavin.
“Oh my God, what can you say?” said senior righthander and winning pitcher Lucas Rutherford. “They helped us significantly.”
Sophomore shortstop Jacoby Harvey produced a two-run double that gave the Rams the lead for good in the fourth inning and he also had a pair of singles.
Senior catcher Zac Cota had a pair of singles and two runs batted in.
“We hit really well,” said Morris. “Lucas Rutherford pitched a great game. He really kept the ball down, got outs and let his defense do the work.”
Rutherford threw 5 ⅔ innings of four-hit, two-run baseball with one strikeout, three walks and two hit batters. He threw 55 strikes among his 98 pitches.
Rutherford was pleased with his outing and said he had “a great defense to back me up.”
He said his curveball was his best pitch.
“I wasn’t getting a lot of calls on my fastball so I had to go to my old reliable curveball,” said Rutherford.
Oxford Hills took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a walk, a stolen base and Jacoby Turcotte’s sacrifice fly.
Bangor, which had stranded six runners on base through the first three innings against Oxford Hills sophomore starter Carter Davis, took a lead it would never relinquish in the fourth with three runs.
Owen Glanville-True started the inning with a ground ball single to center and Jonas Gilley reached base when Davis threw late and wide to second on his sacrifice bunt.
One out later, Gavin Glanville-True legged out an infield single to second to load the bases and his brother scored on Ethan Sproul’s groundout.
Harvey broke the tie with a line drive two-run double over the center fielder’s head off an 0-2 pitch.
“I was looking for a pitch I could drive. He threw me a fastball right down the middle and I didn’t miss it,” said Harvey.
The Vikings got one back in the top of the fifth on Turcotte’s two-out RBI single into short center field but the Rams broke it open with six runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Cota singled to begin the rally and, one out later, singles by Owen Glanville-True and Gilley loaded the base.
Number nine hitter Trey Tennett poked a line drive single into right to deliver the first run and Gavin Glanville-True poked an opposite-field two-run single to left center to knock in the next two.
“I tried to take the ball the other way to do my job for the team, get some runs in and help the team win,” said Gavin.
A single by Harvey and a bases-loaded walk to Kyle Johnson produced another run before Cota capped the rally he started with a two-run single.
Tennett added a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Johnson came on in relief of Rutherford in the sixth with two-on and two outs and walked the first two hitters to force in a run before getting a groundout to end the inning.
He allowed a hit, three walks and two runs in the seventh while getting one out before senior lefty Matt Turcotte came on to get the final two outs.
Gavin Glanville-True made two fielding gems as he made a sliding catch on Finley Cavers’ sinking liner in the second and then made a nice catch and alertly threw a strike to first to complete a double play in the fourth inning.
Jacoby Boyce was Oxford Hills’ only repeat hitter with a double and a single.
Oxford Hills stranded 12 baserunners.
“I was disappointed with the way we played,” said Oxford Hills coach and Maine Baseball Hall of Famer Shane Slicer. “We left the bases loaded four times, we hit a lot of fly balls and we didn’t make some routine plays that we needed to make.
“But you have to give (Bangor) credit. They hit the ball pretty well,” said Slicer.
Bangor will next play on Wednesday when it travels to Brunswick while Oxford Hills hosts Lewiston on Monday. Both games are at 4.