Brewer slams Penquis Jenkins in solid pitching effort

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Brewer Falcon American Legion righthander Ben Jenkins admitted that he may have taken the Penquis Travelers lightly in the first inning of their Zone 1 game at Heddericg Field in Brewer on Friday night.

After getting out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first, he bore down and hurled four more shutout innings and his mates erupted for 13 runs and 11 hits as the Falcons beat Penquis 13-2 for their third straight win.

Brewer is now 4-4 while Penquis fell to 1-7.

“I hadn’t seen them and I underestimated them,” said Jenkins, who will be a senior at Bucksport High School in the fall. “But they’re as good competitors as anybody else. So I decided I couldn’t mess around and I had to get the job done. I didn’t have a bad fastball and my curve broke well although I had trouble getting it over. But it kept them off balance.”

Jenkins, who was 4-2 at Bucksport High in the spring, struck out six and walked only one. Tiger Stewart came on and pitched the last two innings. He gave up a pair of unearned runs in the seventh. Stewart allowed one hit, stuck out one and walked one.

Brewer took the lead for good with a run in the first off Penquis starter and loser Mike Hoschouer on Sean Smith’s soft line drive single to left center; Hoschouer’s two-base throwing error on a pick-off attempt and a wild pitch.

The Falcons got four more apiece in the second and third innings to put the game out of reach.

Greg Crossman reached on second baseman Otis Kneeland’s error to open the second, stole second and scored when Brent Emerson grounded a single up the middle.

“Coach (Dave Gonyar) wanted me to hit the ball up the middle or to the right side to move the runner over,” said Emerson.

Jeff Millett hit a two-out single, stole second and scored on Dan Needham’s sharp single to center. After a walk and a pair of stolen bases, Tim Hodgins hit a two-run single to center.

Brewer’s third-inning runs came off reliever Deron Smith.

Two hit batsmen and a walk set the stage for Matt McGrath’s two-out triple to right which was misplayed by right fielder Curtis Graffam.

Smith singled in Hodgins.

Smith and Emerson had two hits each for Brewer and John Moore had three for Penquis.

The Falcons stole seven bases.

“We wanted to play well for a full seven innings and we came as close to doing that as we have all season,” said Brewer Coach Dave Gonyar. `Everybody seems to be getting good at-bats now.”

Falcons 13, Travelers 2

Penquis Brewer

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Pineo, cf 3 0 0 0 Smith, ss 2 2 2 1

Poulin, lf-3b 3 1 1 0 a-Kenny 1 0 0 0

Moore, ss 4 0 3 0 Hodgins, 1b 2 0 1 2

Carle’n,3b-p-rf 4 0 0 0 Tardif, 2b 2 0 0 0

Smith, rf-p-lf 3 0 0 0 Grant, cf 4 1 1 0

Gilmore, 1b 3 0 0 0 O’Connor, dh 2 0 0 0

Hoschouer, p 0 0 0 0 Raymond, c 1 0 0 0

Larson, dh 1 0 0 0 Wentworth, c 0 1 0 0

Graffam, rf-p 1 0 0 0 Crossman, rf 1 3 1 0

Bragan, c 3 0 0 0 Brigalli, rf 1 0 0 0

Kneeland, 2b 3 1 1 0 Emerson, 3b 2 2 2 3

Johnston, 3b 1 0 0 0

Jenkins, p 3 0 1 0

Stewart, p 0 0 0 0

Millett, lf 3 2 1 1

Needham, 2b 1 1 1 1

McGrath, 1b 3 1 1 3

Totals 28 2 5 0 Totals 29 13 11 11

a-struck out for Smith in 4th inning

Penquis 000 000 2 – 2

Brewer 144 301 x – 13

E – Hoschouer, Kneeland, Moore; Emerson, Raymond 2, McGrath, Stewart, Johnston

2B – Emerson

3B – McGrath LOB -Penquis 9, Brewer 10 DP – Tardif to Smith to McGrath SB – Smith 2, Crossman 2, Millett, Needham 2; Moore 2

Pitching Summary

PITCHER IP H R BB SO

Penquis

Hoschouer (L,0-3) 1 2/3 5 5 1 1

Smith 2 1/3 5 7 3 1

Carleton 1 0 1 2 2

Graffam 1 1 0 0 0

Brewer

Jenkins (W, 1-1) 5 5 0 1 6

Stewart 2 1 2 1 1

HBP – Crossman, Millett (by Smith), Grant (by Carleton), Smith (by Graffam) WP – Stewart, Hoschouer TIME -2:26