Bangor bats slap ‘Jacks> Blue Ox split on weekend

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ORONO – Despite a 25-hit Bangor barrage, the Blue Ox could only manage a split of their Northeast League weekend set with Adirondack. Bangor won Sunday’s game 10-4 after losing 10-9 Saturday night.

On Sunday, Bangor slugger Hugh Walker and another off-season acquisition, pitcher-coach George Tsamis, teamed up to lead the Blue Ox to victory.

Walker continued his hot start at the plate by going 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs as the Blue Ox improved to 2-1.

“This was an important game,” said Walker. “You’re trying to get ahead, especially at the beginning of the year… so the best thing is to get the best start possible and get your team to where you can dictate the move on the league and don’t let the league dictate to you.”

The Blue Ox are on the move offensively. They knocked out 14 hits Sunday, four for extra bases, to give them 35 and a .313 batting average this season.

“It’s starting to come together,” said Walker, a master of the understatement. “When you’re hitting, you can get on a roll and it can get contagious throughout the team.”

The Lumberjacks suffered from sick bats against Tsamis, who used an assortment of off-speed pitches to keep the entire lineup off-balance and win his debut game.

“The big thing was getting ahead in the count a lot,” said Tsamis. “My changeup worked really good. I know I don’t throw 90 miles an hour, but my fastball was good. It moved and hit the spots.”

Tsamis allowed two hits, one walk, and struck out eight in five scoreless innings. He said pitching with a big lead early helped.

“When it’s 8-nothing… even a guy like me who throws about as hard as my mother can go out and throw first-pitch fastballs. And they popped them up!” he said.

Rogelio Nunez’s first home run of the season, a two-run shot, highlighted a big third inning for the Ox as they sent eight batters to the plate and came away with five runs on five hits.

Bangor struck for two more in the fourth on four straight singles, and another pair on Walker’s bases-loaded single up the middle with two outs in the eighth.

The Ox scored first with an RBI groundout in the second by Oxford’s Jeremy Tardiff in his first at-bat for the team.

The ‘Jacks scored four runs off Ray Coleman, who was ineffective coming off a foot injury, on five hits in the eighth.

Mark Hreben relieved him and walked his first batter to load the bases, but got out of the jam with an infield fly and strikeout. A 1-2-3 ninth gave the 6-foot-2 Skowhegan righthander his second save.

“Let’s put it this way, if he keeps going like that, it’s his job to lose,” said Tsamis about the closer’s job.

Bob Zupcic was the central figure in a benches-emptying incident in the seventh.

Zupcic led off with a grounder down the first base line. Pitcher Frank Chibbaro covered and flipped to first baseman Kevin Johnson, who ran into Zupcic while applying the tag. Zupcic took exception to the forceful tag and shouted at Johnson. Base coaches and teammates restrained the pair and both teams swarmed onto the field before order was quickly restored and tempers cooled.

Saturday night, the Lumberjacks prevailed in a back-and-forth affair featuring three Blue Ox homers, three lead changes and two ejections.

Tim Morrow went 4-for-5 with his first two home runs and dro Tim Morrow went 4-for-5 with his first two home runs and drove in five runs to go over the 300-RBI mark in his minor league career.

“I’m trying to be more patient this year. I was a bit too anxious yesterday and out in front of a lot of changeups,” said Morrow, referring to his 1-for-5 outing Friday.

Gabe Duross also went deep with a two-run shot in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a stubborn Adirondack team with better relief pitching.

With Bangor leading 9-7 in the eighth, three straight singles scored a run off Ox reliever Scott Chesmer. A sacrifice later, Mike Macone took the mound for the first time this season and threw a wild pitch that scored a run.

Macone hit the first batter he faced, balked him to second, and gave up a sacrifice fly to make it 10-9 Adirondack.

First baseman Darren Doucette, who was pinch-hit for in the eighth, was ejected in the ninth along with bullpen coach Pete Bifone for arguing balls and strikes and yelling at home plate umpire Shawn Kimball after Joe Lewis was called out on a third strike.

Lumberjacks 10, Blue Ox 9

(Saturday Night)

Adirondack (1-1) Bangor (1-1)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Kingston, cf 3 2 2 1 Ekelund, ss 3 2 0 0

Davila, 3b 6 1 1 0 Hine, 2b 5 3 3 1

DeLeon,1b-dh 6 3 3 1 Morrow, rf 5 2 4 5

Blakeney, rf 2 2 2 3 Walker, lf 4 1 1 1

Johnson, lf-1b 3 0 1 1 Zupcic, dh 5 0 0 0

Doucette, dh 4 0 0 0 Duross, 1b 5 1 1 2

Moeglin, lf 0 0 0 1 Nunez, 3b-c 4 0 1 0

Flanigan, c 5 0 1 1 White, cf 4 0 0 0

Sidoti, 2b 4 1 0 0 Mota, c 3 0 0 0

Lewis, ss 4 1 1 0 a-Longo 1 0 0 0

Murray, 3b 0 0 0 0

Totals 37 10 11 8 Totals 39 9 10 9

a-grounded out for Mota in eighth

Adirondack 103 120 030 – 10

Bangor 003 010 500 – 9

E – DeLeon, Lewis; Nunez, Hine 2B – Blakeney, Johnson; Hine, Nunez 3B – Blakeney HR – Duross (1), Morrow 2 (2) LOB – Lumberjacks 11, Blue Ox 6 SB – Walker S – Blakeney SF – Kingston, Moeglin

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Adirondack

Maddalone 5 5 4 3 1 3

Williams 1 2/3 3 5 5 1 3

Duncan (W,1-0) 1 1/3 2 0 0 0 0

Breitenstein(S,1) 1 0 0 0 0 1

Bangor

Davis 3 2/3 5 5 2 2 2

Quirk 2 1/3 3 2 2 3 4

Chesmer (L,0-1) 1 1/3 3 3 3 0 1

Macone 1 2/3 1 0 0 1 2

HBP – Johnson by Quirk, Johnson by Macone; Ekelund by Williams WP – Duncan; Macone BK – Macone TIME – 3:09 ATTENDANCE – 612

Blue Ox 10, Lumberjacks 4

(Sunday Afternoon)

Adirondack (1-2) Bangor (2-1)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Kingston, cf 5 1 1 0 Ekelund, ss 3 2 1 0

Davila, 3b 4 1 1 2 Hine, 2b 4 2 3 1

DeLeon, dh 4 0 1 1 Morrow, dh 5 1 1 0

Blakeney, rf 4 0 2 1 Walker, lf 5 1 3 4

Johnson, 1b-lf 2 0 0 0 Zupcic, rf 4 1 1 1

Moeglin, lf 3 0 0 0 White, cf 0 0 0 0

Sutherland, c 1 0 0 0 Duross, 1b 4 1 1 1

Sidoti, 2b 4 0 1 0 Nunez, c 4 1 2 2

Flanigan, c 2 0 0 0 Tardiff,cf-rf 4 0 2 1

Doucette, 1b 2 1 1 0 Murray, 3b 4 1 0 0

Lewis, ss 3 1 0 0

Totals 34 4 7 4 Totals 37 10 14 10

Adirondack 000 000 040 – 4

Bangor 015 200 02x – 10

E – Lewis; Murray, Tsamis 2B – DeLeon; Hine, Nunez, Walker HR – Nunez (1) LOB – Adirondack 6, Bangor 7 DP – Murray-Hine-Duross SB – Balkeney; Murray, Tardiff

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Adirondack

Martin (L,0-1) 2 2/3 7 6 6 2 2

Chibbaro 4 1/3 5 2 2 0 2

Cordle 2/3 1 2 1 1 0

Ward 1/3 1 0 0 0 1

Bangor

Tsamis (W,1-0) 5 2 0 0 1 8

Longo 2 0 0 0 1 2

Coleman 1/3 5 4 4 0 0

Hreben (S,2) 1 2/3 0 0 0 1 1

WP – Martin 2; Longo TIME – 2:55 ATTENDANCE – 326