December 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Witches pay back the Rams> Brewer capitalizes to score 6-1 upset

BANGOR – The Brewer Witches turned the tables on Bangor Wednesday night, capitalizing on several fielding miscues and backing up a solid outing by sophomore Mike Kane to hand the Rams their first loss of the season.

The Witches notched a 6-1 schoolboy baseball victory over the Rams at the Mansfield Complex to finish the regular season 11-5 and possibly give themselves a home game in the first round of next week’s playoffs.

Bangor drops to 13-1 with two games left against Presque Isle on Thursday.

In the teams’ first game of the season, the Rams made Brewer pay for three errors in a 6-3 victory.

On a night when the attention was focused on Bangor star pitcher Matt Kinney, Kane stole the spotlight. The lefthander pitched like a veteran, keeping Bangor’s batter’s off balance with his knuckleball and curve.

“I’m only a sophomore and I thought `He’s getting all the attention, maybe I should get mine,’ ” said Kane. “This is just a great confidence booster, for the whole team and for me.”

Kane pitched a four-hitter, walked four, and struck out six.

After Bangor took a 1-0 lead on Kinney’s RBI groundout in the first, the Witches’ offense wasted no time responding.

Jared Seavey led off the second inning with a double and Mike Kane followed with an RBI single up the middle to tie the game. Ben Roeder bunted and reached on a throwing error by third baseman Casey Catell. The throw allowed Kane to score from second.

“The key was we came back and answered (Bangor’s run),” said Brewer coach Dennis Kiah. “That’s the key, I think, in baseball. If somebody scores, you’ve got to answer it, if not do one better.”

The Witches scored twice more in the fourth after two quick outs. No. 8 hitter Dakota Therrien flaired a single just over the second baseman and Dennis Roy drew a walk before Chris Roeder and Kevin Card hit back-to-back RBI singles.

The Rams hurt themselves with errors again in the fifth as Seavey led off by reaching on a fielding error. Ben Roeder lined a single up the middle one out later.

Kinney balked to score Seavey from third before Will Astbury reached on a fielding error by Ram shortstop Mike Pelkey. Therrien followed with a walk to load the bases and Kinney balked again, scoring Roeder.

“I don’t know what happened on that first one,” said Kinney. “The second one… I got crossed up with Mark (McEwen) and tried to change my pitch in my windup.”

Bangor’s senior righthander gave up seven hits and three walks in five innings.

Brewer has enjoyed unequaled success against Bangor’s ace. Counting Wednesday’s game, the Witches have 19 of the 25 hits Kinney has allowed this season.

“They just believe. They believe they can hit,” said Kiah. “We had a .340 team batting average coming in. It seems like there isn’t an easy out in the lineup.”

Card led Brewer’s offense, going 2-for-4.

Mike Pelkey led the Rams with a double. No Bangor batter had more than one hit.

Witches 6, Rams 1

Brewer boys Bangor

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

C.Roeder, cf 4 0 1 1 True, lf 4 1 1 0

Card, 1b 4 0 2 1 McEwen, c 3 0 1 0

Sawyer, 2b 3 0 0 0 Jamieson, cf 3 0 1 0

Seavey, ss 4 2 1 0 Kinney, p-1b 4 0 0 1

Kane, p 4 1 1 1 Robichaud, rf 2 0 0 0

B.Roeder, lf 4 1 1 0 Estey, dh 1 0 0 0

Astbury, 3b 3 0 0 0 Wilcox, 1b 0 0 0 0

a-Wilson 0 0 0 0 Catell, 3b 3 0 0 0

Therrien, rf 3 1 1 0 Pelkey, ss 3 0 1 0

Roy, dh 2 1 0 0 Waterman, 2b 1 0 0 0

Corey, c 0 0 0 0 b-Goldsmith 0 0 0 0

c-Dorr 1 0 0 0

Totals 31 6 7 3 Totals 25 1 4 1

a-ran for Astbury in seventh

b-walked for Waterman in fifth

c-struck out for Waterman in seventh

Brewer (11-5) 020 220 0 – 6

Bangor (13-1) 100 000 0 – 1

E – Seavey, Astbury; Jamieson, Catell 2, Pelkey 2 2B – Seavey; Pelkey LOB – Brewer 8; Bangor 7 DP – Pelkey to Waterman to Wilcox SB – B.Roeder; Estey S – B.Roeder; Jamieson

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

Kane (W,4-2) 7 4 1 1 4 6

Bangor

Kinney (L) 5 7 6 4 3 5

Dorr 1 0 0 0 0 1

Arsenault 1 0 0 0 1 1

HBP – Estey by Kane WP – Kinney PB – McEwen 2 BK – Kinney 2 TIME – 1:58 ATTENDANCE – 425 (est.)


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