BANGOR – Brewer hasn’t played like this all season so it seems the Falcons picked the perfect time to soar.

Matt Gilbert threw a four-hitter and Don Sawyer went 6-for-6 to lead Brewer to a 15-1 American Legion Zone 1 tourney victory over Bangor Sunday night at Mansfield Stadium, punching the team’s ticket to the Zone 1 finals and to Augusta for the state tournament, also.

Bangor will play Old Town-Orono, which ousted Trenton 11-2 in Sunday’s early game, at 4 p.m. today in an elimination round. The winner also qualifies for the state tourney and plays Brewer later Monday night in the Zone 1 finals.

A Brewer loss would force a Tuesday game.

Gilbert, who threw 72 strikes in 98 pitches, received plenty of support Sunday night.

“I just went out and threw strikes, the defense played well, and the offense got 20 hits so that helped,” Gilbert said. “It’s a little easier playing with a pad than a 1-0 game, and that helped a lot.

“I was just trying to go out and change speeds on them,” the Hampden Academy junior said.

Gilbert struck out four, walked five and gave up just one run, when Ryan Mick singled, advanced to second on a passed ball, grabbed third on catcher David Gross’ throwing error before scoring on Gilbert’s only wild pitch.

“He kept them off balance and threw quite a few strikes,” Brewer coach Dave Gonyar said.

Sawyer led Brewer’s blazing bats, which knocked out 20 hits including three doubles, with six singles, two RBIs, and scored four runs.

“He’s playing at a peak right now,” grinned Gonyar. “We’re playing our best baseball of the summer, and we haven’t played a lot of games like this, and I guess we’re playing our best ball at the right time.”

In the first game, John Montgomery settled in quickly on the mound, using his breaking balls to nab his fifth win.

“He got in a good feel with it,” Old Town-Orono coach Dave Paul. “He got in a good rhythm with it and was able to start hitters off with it in the middle innings and get ahead with the strike.”

The Stearns of Millinocket senior held Trenton to six hits, striking out five and walking one. And Trenton’s impatience at bat only helped out the righty.

“That helped me out a lot, it saved my arm a little bit,” said Montgomery, who had 75 strikes in 116 throws. “They knew I was coming in there, and I think they hoped I would come right in there and they could whack at it.”

Montgomery came through offensively also, with two singles and an RBI double, but it was his leadoff single in the sixth which sparked the Twins’ big inning.

Trenton starter Dan Curtis issued a walk, but got the first out with a strike out.

Jared Foster came up with an one-out, RBI single followed by a Tom Hite single, John Powers’ RBI walk, and Steve Osborne’s RBI single, before reliever Matt McFarland gave up a single to Robey Rhoads. Bryan Goody’s groundout got the RBI, boosting Old Town-Orono to a 6-2 lead.

“We just got on a roll and started banging out the hits and got all those runs,” Montgomery said. “When we got the hits, we got our confidence up.”

Trenton took the early lead on Dan Curtis’ RBI double in the third, scoring Tim Pert, who had a one-out single. Chris Pickering swatted a leadoff double an inning later, and stole third, before scoring on Torrey MacDonald’s grounder.

“It was a bad time to get into a slump, but really, we ran into two hot pitchers [Montgomery and Brewer’s Chris Soper],” Trenton coach Jack Merr

Falcons 15, Comrades 1

(Sunday’s Second Game, 8 inn.)

Brewer (16-7) Bangor (16-7)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Smith, lf 4 0 1 0 Alaimo, p-rf 3 0 0 0

b-Dority 1 0 0 0 Wat’rm’n,ss-2b 3 0 0 0

Peak, 3b 4 2 1 0 Pressley, 1b 4 0 1 0

Kane, rf 6 2 1 0 Catell, 3b 3 0 1 0

Gobel, 1b 5 2 2 2 Patchell,rf-ss 4 0 1 0

Sawyer, ss 6 4 6 2 True, cf 3 0 0 0

Largay, 2b 5 1 3 1 Stover, lf 4 0 0 0

Roy, cf 6 1 4 4 Ju. Perry, c 3 0 0 0

Gross, c 6 0 2 1 Wilcox, 2b 0 0 0 0

a-Preston 0 1 0 0 Mick, p 3 1 1 0

Corey, c 0 0 0 0

Kn’k’rb’ker, dh 3 2 0 1

Totals 46 15 20 11 Totals 30 1 4 0

a – scored for Gross in eighth

b – struck out for Smith in eighth

Brewer 022 002 18 – 15

Bangor 000 000 10 – 1

E – Gross 2, Largay; Waterman 2, Pressley, Catell, Perry, Patchell

2B – Peak, Gobel, Roy; Ju. Perry LOB – Brewer 12, Bangor 8 DP – Patchell to Waterman to Pressley SB – Sawyer, Kane, Knickerbocker; Mick

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

Gilbert, (W, 5-1) 7 4 1 1 5 8

Morneault 1 0 0 0 0 0

Bangor

Alaimo (L, 3-4) 2 9 4 4 0 0

Mick 6 11 11 11 6 4

Alaimo pitched to four batters in third

WP – Gilbert PB – Gross TIME – 2:53 ATTENDANCE – 143

Twins 11, Acadians 2

(Sunday’s First Game)

Old Town-Orono Trenton

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Osborne, cf 5 2 2 2 Torrey, cf 3 0 0 0

Miller, cf 1 0 0 0 Pert, c 4 1 1 0

Rhoads, ss 5 1 2 0 Curtis, p-lf 4 0 2 1

Goody, lf 4 0 1 2 Worcester, 1b 4 0 1 0

Montgomy, p 5 1 3 1 Brown, rf 3 0 0 0

McGlinn, c 4 1 0 0 Mosley, rf 1 0 0 0

Poulin, 3b 4 0 0 0 Pickering, 3b 3 1 2 0

Daniels, 3b 1 0 0 0 a-R.MacDald 1 0 0 0

Foster, 1b 4 1 1 1 Cole, ss-p 3 0 0 0

Sturtevant, 1b 1 1 1 0 b-Sadlier 1 0 0 0

Hite, rf 3 2 2 0 Donaldson, lf 2 0 0 1

Bowley, rf 1 1 1 1 McFland,p-ss 1 0 0 0

Powers, 2b 4 1 0 1 c-Weed 1 0 0 0

Crockett, 2b 0 0 0 0 T.MacDald,2b 3 0 0 0

Marancik, 2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 40 11 13 8 Totals 43 2 6 2

a – grounded out for Pickering in 9th inning

b – grounded out for Cole in 9th inning

c – struck out for McFarland in 9th inning

Old Town-Orono 000 006 032 – 11

Trenton 001 100 000 – 2

E – Curtis, Pickering, Worcester, T. MacDonald, Rhoads 2B – Osborne, Montgomery, Sturtevant, Curtis, Pickering 3B – Bowley, Pickering LOB – Old Town-Orono 8, Trenton 6 SB – Torrey, Pickering SF – Goody

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Old Town-Orono

Montgomery (W,5-1) 9 6 2 2 1 5

Trenton

Curtis (L, 3-3) 5 1/3 7 6 6 3 3

McFarland 2 2 0 0 1 0

Cole 1 3 2 2 0 0

Hardison 2/3 1 3 3 0 1

BK – Curtis ATTENDANCE – 130