Dority’s gritty comeback boosts Brewer

It was supposed to be a great year for Jason Dority.

He was the captain of Hampden Academy’s ice hockey team, a three-year starter on the baseball team, and a lock for the Brewer Falcons American Legion squad.

Gathering veteran talent from Brewer, Bucksport and Hampden, the Falcons’ season also looked bright.

Dority wrecked his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee in January while checking an opposing hockey player into the boards.

And Brewer had a difficult time getting good pitching, hitting and defense all in the same game.

Only hard work and determination saved both seasons. Dority broke all the recovery-time marks and Brewer got its act together just in time for the Zone 1 tournament.

“All the pieces were there all season long, but it was a matter of getting everything to mesh at the right time,” Brewer coach Dave Gonyar said. “We knew we had good pitching, we knew we had good defense, and we knew we had good hitting.

“But jeez, one game you might get two of the three, and then another game you might get none of the three, and then you might get all three,” Gonyar said. “And for us, any time it seemed like we were ready to take off, we didn’t play well and we couldn’t get things going.”

The American Legion state champion Falcons, who claimed their first title since 1989 last week and their fourth since the state tournament’s inception in 1928, play host Bristol, Conn. tonight at the Northeast Regional tournament at Bristol’s Muzzy Field.

The winner of the eight-team, double-elimination tourney advances to the American Legion World Series in Roseburg, Ore., scheduled Aug. 23-27.

Matt Gilbert, 7-1 and the state tournament’s Most Valuable Player, gets the start against 27-11 Bristol, following the completion of the 5:05 p.m. game between 24-10 Manchester, N.H., and 31-6 Oakville, Conn. Chris Soper (5-2) gets Saturday’s start.

While the team battled to a 14-7 record in a four-way Zone 1 dogfight, Dority was making his own comeback from February reconstructive surgery.

“My therapists were very worried about me because I was going so quick and usually their patients are having such a hard time with it that they don’t feel comfortable enough to step in and play,” he said. “I was responding and working hard all the time, and I said `I want to play, get me out there.’

“They say the earliest anybody ever comes back is six months, and I was back and doing practice stuff in four,” he said.

Sitting on the bench, however, was not part of Dority’s plan in his fourth year as a Falcon.

“It was extremely difficult,” Dority said. “It was difficult during high school, and before I even got hurt, I was looking forward to Legion season because, you look at this team and we’ve got a lot of talent.

“I knew we were going to be good, and I knew we had a lot of potential,” he said.

A 2 1/2-year starter, Dority saw limited playing time early and worked his way into the designated hitter’s role, and pinch runners did what he couldn’t do well.

But that luxury was taken away with the start of the zone tournament, which does not allow players to re-enter the game, benching the .310 hitter.

“He wanted to do more but he knew that was his role,” Gonyar said.