BREWER – Timely hitting and clutch pitching gave the Brewer Witches a 5-0 quarterfinal baseball victory over Presque Isle High School here at a soggy Heddericg Field Wednesday afternoon.

The No. 4 Witches (12-5) advance to play the winner of today’s Old Town-Cony of Augusta game in a Saturday Eastern Maine Class A semifinal. Presque Isle finished its season at 10-6.

Junior Dennis Roy (4-1) had to do his impression of Houdini three times en route to four innings of scoreless relief and a victory.

Roy relieved lefty starter Mike Kane, who left the mound with a sore arm in the middle of the third.

“He said his arm was a bit tender,” said Brewer coach Dennis Kiah. “And I didn’t want to take a chance on getting him hurt.”

After a relatively easy fourth, Roy flirted with danger a bit in the fifth with a runner on first and two outs. He walked the next batter before getting bailed out by an inning-ending force play at second.

There was more trouble in the sixth as Roy walked the first two batters on eight pitches. A passed ball moved them to second and third.

After starting the next batter with a ball, Roy threw eight strikes in his next nine pitches for back-to-back strikeouts. A flyout ended the threat.

“That was the second inning they had second and third and nobody out, and Dennis bared down, went right after them, and was able to get out of it,” Kiah said.

The first time was in the third inning, when Brewer executed the game’s “great escape.”

Kane walked Presque Isle’s Matt Allen to lead off the inning. With Brewer’s fielders rushing in, John Sewall dropped down a bunt that died two feet in front of the plate.

Brewer catcher Troy Corey dove to get the ball, got his feet tangled with a teammate, and let loose a wild throw to first which got by first baseman Kevin Card and put Wildcats on second and third.

Presque Isle’s Adam Daigle ripped a one-hopper to third baseman Will Astbury, who caught Allen too far off the bag for the first out. The next batter, Mark Yagger, made the second out with a foul popup to first.

Cleanup hitter Tim Underwood then hit a grounder to second to force the third out at the base.

The Wildcats again had runners on first and second with one out in the seventh, but ended the game with a flyout and groundout.

“We didn’t come up with any clutch hits and they did,” said Presque Isle coach Tim Olore. “I think they’re the best hitting team we’ve played.”

The statistics bear Olore out. The Witches came into the game hitting .335 as a team.

“All the hitters are real confident right now,” Kiah said. “They all feel they can step to the plate and get a hit.”

Chris Roeder and Will Astbury, the No. 1 and 7 hitters, respectively, led Brewer’s 10-hit attack with three hits apiece.

A first-inning fielding error scored Brewer’s first run. Brewer scored two in the third on a sacrifice fly by Jared Seavey and an RBI single to left by Ben Roeder.

Seavey drove in another run in the fifth with a one-out single to deep right center. The Witches scored the final run in the sixth on Chris Roeder’s two-out single down the right-field line.

Daigle went the distance for the Wildcats. He and Yagger accounted for Presque Isle’s two hits.

Witches 5, Wildcats 0

Presque Isle boys Brewer

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Sewall, 2b 4 0 0 0 C.Roeder, cf 4 1 3 1

Daigle, p 4 0 1 0 Card, 1b 3 1 0 0

Yagger, ss 2 0 1 0 Sawyer, 2b 3 2 2 0

a-Keenan 0 0 0 0 Seavey, ss 3 0 1 2

Underwood,lf 4 0 0 0 Kane, p-rf 2 0 0 0

Wood, dh 2 0 0 0 B.Roeder, lf 3 0 1 1

Archer, cf 0 0 0 0 Astbury, 3b 3 0 3 0

Graves, rf 2 0 0 0 b-Wilson 0 0 0 0

Graham, rf 0 0 0 0 Therrien, dh 3 1 0 0

White, 1b 2 0 0 0 Corey, c 0 0 0 0

D.Allen, c 2 0 0 0 Roy, rf-p 2 0 0 0

c-Patenaude 1 0 0 0 d-Somes 1 0 0 0

M.Allen, 3b 1 0 0 0

e-Bouchard 0 0 0 0

Totals 24 0 2 0 Totals 27 5 10 4

a-ran for Yagger in fifth

b-ran for Astbury in sixth

c-struck out for Allen in sixth

d-struck out for Roy in sixth

e-ran for M. Allen in third

Presque Isle (10-6) 000 000 0 – 0

Brewer (12-5) 102 011 x – 5

E – Yagger; Corey 2B – Sawyer LOB – Presque Isle 11; Brewer 6 S – Card SF – Seavey

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Presque Isle

Daigle (L) 6 10 5 4 2 3

Brewer

Kane 3 1 0 0 2 2

Roy (W,4-1) 4 1 0 0 6 5

WP – Daigle 2 PB – D. Allen; Corey TIME – 1:54 ATTENDANCE – 142