BANGOR – After going 0-for-3 at the plate, T.J. True was frustrated.

Granted, the 15-year-old had scored two of Bangor’s five runs. But True’s emotions had worked against him as he struck out swinging on three pitches in the sixth inning against Brewer’s Dennis Roy.

Now he was in a prime position to be a seventh-inning hero. The bases were loaded, and the score was tied at five against the second-place Falcons in the first game of an American Legion Zone 1 twi-night doubleheader at Mansfield Complex here Saturday.

The tall left-fielder watched the first pitch go by for a strike and waited through a second pitch, a ball.

Reliever Mike Kane’s third pitch was a hanging curve that True promptly turned into a line drive down the right field line, and Scott Shaw trotted across home plate.

Final score: 6-5, Bangor.

“I was just trying to calm myself down and hit the ball hard,” True said. “I just told myself I didn’t have anything to lose.”

The loss knocked the wind out of the Falcons who trailed the undefeated Comrades by a half game entering Saturday’s doubleheader, and they lost the second game 10-4. Bangor now leads the zone by 2 1/2 games.

“I think the first game just set the tone,” shrugged Falcon coach Dave Gonyar. “Bangor came out and had a lot of confidence and seemed to have a lot of life to them.

“Our kids came out and didn’t seem to have that same confidence and excitement going into (the second game),” Gonyar added.

Brewer had flown to an early lead in the first game, aided by two Comrade fielding errors, giving the Falcons three unearned runs at the end of two innings.

They began to take off again in the third when Mike Solovei’s lead-off single turned into a run, courtesy of singles by Kane and Daniel “Tiger” Stewart.

But Stewart was cut down on the basepath by Jason Dority’s fielder’s choice, and Greg Gobel’s grounder was sucked up and turned into a double play by Shaw, second baseman Andy Robichaud and first baseman Josh Pressley.

Robichaud also knocked out a second double play in the fifth, grabbing a line drive by Kane before throwing to Pressley to cut down Solovei, who wrongly guessed Kane’s shot would escape Robichaud’s glove.

Bangor crept closer with one-run innings in the first, fourth, and fifth, and exploded in the fifth when a Casey Catell grounder was bobbled by shortstop Dority, and advanced on Ryan Mick’s one-out single.

True struck out and McEwen was hit by a Roy pitch, loading the bases. Josh Jamieson lined Roy’s first pitch down the left field line for his first hit, driving in two runs to tie the score at five.

“It’s a rivalry, and I think we make plays sometimes against other teams that we didn’t today against Brewer because it is a rivalry,” said Comrade coach Steve Vanidestine of the early errors.

“The key to the game, I think, is this. When we have our two, three, four hitters up, we have to get a hit, and Josh did that for us, and so did T.J.,” he said.

In the second game, Bangor jumped all over starter Stewart, coming up with four runs on five hits in the first inning as they batted through the order, forcing Stewart to throw 31 pitches.

The Comrades continued to batter Stewart in the third as Brewer gave up another five runs on one-run doubles by Mick and True and a McEwen triple.

The fireworks continued after Stewart was relieved by Dustin Campbell, when Jamieson sent Campbell’s third pitch some 400 feet to left-center field, over the fence and three trees.

“He started throwing the ball pretty good,” said Gonyar of Stewart’s three-inning effort. “There were a couple of balls that they hit pretty well, and we didn’t come up with the major catch to help him out.”

Comrades 6, Falcons 5

(First Game)

Brewer Bangor

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Winchester, lf 3 1 2 1 True, lf 4 2 1 1

Sawyer, rf 4 0 3 1 McEwen, p 4 0 1 0

Solovei, cf 4 1 2 0 Jamieson, cf 4 0 1 2

Roy, p 0 0 0 0 Pressley, 1b 3 0 2 2

Kane, dh 4 0 1 0 a-Hunt 0 0 0 0

Stewart, 1b 4 1 3 1 Robichaud, 2b 2 0 1 0

Dority, ss 3 1 1 0 Shaw, ss 3 2 0 0

Gobel, 3b 3 1 0 0 Catell, 3b 2 1 0 1

Wentworth, c 3 0 0 0 Perry, c 3 0 0 0

Tardif, 2b 3 0 0 0 Moore, rf 0 0 0 0

b-Mick 1 1 1 0

Totals 31 5 12 3 Totals 26 6 7 6

a- ran for Pressley in sixth

b- singled for Moore in sixth

Brewer (8-2) 031 001 0 – 5

Bangor (9-0) 100 112 1 – 6

E – Gobel, Tardif, Dority; Robichaud, Shaw 2B – Jamieson 3B – Sawyer LOB – Brewer 7, Bangor 12 DP – Shaw to Robichaud, Pressley; Robichaud to Pressley SB – Winchester; True S – Winchester; Catell SF – Catell

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

Roy 5 2/3 6 5 4 4 5

Kane, L (3-1) 1 1/3 1 1 1 2 0

Bangor

McEwen, W (3-0) 7 12 5 2 2 3

HBP – Roy 2, Kane 2 PB – Wentworth TIME – 2:05 ATTENDANCE – 80

Comrades 10, Falcons 4

(Second Game)

Brewer Bangor

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Winchester, lf 4 0 1 0 True, lf 4 1 1 1

Sawyer, rf 4 0 1 0 Alaimo, lf 0 0 0 0

Solovei, cf 3 0 0 0 McEwen, c 4 2 1 1

Kane, 1b 3 1 1 0 Nill, c 0 0 0 0

Stewart, p 1 1 1 0 Jamieson, cf 3 3 3 2

Campbell, p 2 0 0 0 Pressley, 1b 1 0 1 1

Dority, ss 1 0 1 0 Robichaud, p 3 1 1 1

Gobel, 3b 2 1 1 2 Reynolds, p 1 0 0 0

Wentworth, c 1 0 0 0 Shaw, ss 3 2 1 0

a-Largay 2 1 0 0 Catell, 3b 3 0 0 0

Tardif, 2b 3 0 0 0 Mick, rf 3 1 2 2

Moore, rf 0 0 0 0

Wilcox, 2b 3 0 0 0

Hunt, 2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 26 4 6 2 Totals 28 10 10 8

a- grounded into an error for Wentworth in the sixth

Brewer (8-3) 020 000 2 – 4

Bangor (10-0) 405 001 x – 10

E – Stewart, Dority, Tardif; Wilcox, Shaw 2 2B – Sawyer; Mick 3B – McEwen HR – Jamieson LOB – Brewer 4, Bangor 5 SB – Dority; Jamieson S – Catell

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

Stewart, L(0-2) 2 2/3 8 7 7 3 1

Campbell 4 1/3 2 3 3 2 3

Bangor

Robichaud, W(1-0) 6 5 2 2 1 6

Reynolds 1 1 1 0 1 0

TIME – 1:45 ATTENDANCE – 100