ORONO – Whether it was in response to the recent public disclosure the Bangor Blue Ox may move next year or not, the third-largest crowd in team history showed up for Friday night’s game at Mahaney Diamond.

And thanks largely to a masterful job on the mound by player-coach George Tsamis, the Blue Ox didn’t disappoint the season-high 1,648 fans on hand as they started the second half of the Northeast League season with a 4-1 victory.

Tsamis threw 42 of his 65 pitches in 5 1/3 innings for strikes and flirted with a no-hitter until the sixth with a variety of offspeed pitches.

“My changeup was working great and I got ahead of the batters – see, that’s the whole thing. When you get ahead, you’re going to do good. It was like I was throwing 90 miles an hour,” said Tsamis.

Despite walking the leadoff batter, Ron Reams, in the second, Tsamis faced the minimum number of batters through five innings as Reams was caught stealing.

With a quality pitching performance, solid defense (no errors), and timely hitting, team members and coaches were enthused.

“It does a lot for our confidence and it’s nice to see all these fans,” said Bangor manager Roger LaFrancois. “Hopefully these people around here will wake up and start coming out to our games.”

Bangor jumped out quickly with two runs in the first inning. Hugh Walker started the unlikely scoring by reaching on a fielder’s choice with two outs.

Tim Morrow reached on a fielder’s error to put runners at the corners before former UMaine players Gabe Duross and Chad White followed with back-to-back RBI singles.

The Blue Ox came back with two more in the third to make it 4-0. Steve Hine (3-for-3) led things off with a single and moved to third on Hugh Walker’s double to shallow right that landed right on the foul line.

After Morrow’s RBI groundout, Gabe Duross ripped a single just to the right of second base past a drawn-in infield and plated the fourth run.

Meanwhile, Tsamis was baffling ‘Jacks hitters with breaking pitches until Steve Flanigan ended the no-hitter bid with a hot shot that Tsamis speared with his glove while going backward with one out in the sixth.

Tsamis recovered in time to throw to first, but the throw was a bit wide and got by Duross as Flanigan touched the bag. LaFrancois immediately lifted Tsamis after the play.

“The last three or four games I’ve pitched, I’ve been giving up the booty in the sixth. So I told Roger I just wanted to go five. After the fifth, I said `If I give up a hit, you take me out,” Tsamis explained. “I wanted to leave with a good game and keep my confidence up.”

Darren Doucette foiled Bangor’s shutout bid with two outs in the top of the seventh. Doucette jumped on the first pitch from reliever Scott Chesmer and blasted it high over the right field wall for his sixth homer of the season.

Tsamis, Chesmer and new addition Joe Grahe combined on a three-hitter. Grahe notched the save.

“This wasn’t like a must-win game, but it was important for us to get off to a good start in the second half and we had a good night hitting, fielding and pitching-wise,” said Morrow, who is hitting .356 with 12 RBIs over his last 11 games.

Bangor plays Adirondack again tonight at 7 and on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Ox 4, Lumberjacks 1

Adirondack (0-1) Bangor (1-0)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Kingston, cf 4 0 0 0 Ekelund, 3b 4 0 0 0

Lewis, ss 4 0 1 0 Hine, 2b 3 1 3 0

DeLeon, 1b 4 0 0 0 Walker, lf 4 2 1 0

Reams, lf 2 0 0 0 Morrow, rf 4 1 1 1

Doucette, dh 3 1 1 1 Duross, 1b 4 0 2 2

Salvagio, rf 3 0 0 0 White, ss 4 0 1 1

Davila, 2b 3 0 0 0 Dionne, dh 3 0 0 0

Flanigan, c 3 0 1 0 Mota, c 3 0 1 0

Moeglin, 3b 3 0 1 0 Bussey, cf 3 0 1 0

Totals 29 1 4 1 Totals 32 4 10 4

Adirondack 000 000 100 – 1

Bangor 202 000 00x – 4

E – Moeglin 2B – Walker HR – Doucette (6) LOB – Adirondack 2; Bangor 5 DP – Moeglin to Davila to DeLeon, Davila to Lewis to DeLeon (2); Hine to Duross

SB – Walker

S – Walker

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Adirondack

Merrill (L,3-3) 8 10 4 2 1 3

Bangor

Tsamis (W,4-3) 5 1/3 1 0 0 1 2

Chesmer 2 2/3 2 1 1 0 1

Grahe (S,1) 1 1 0 0 0 0

WP – Merrill TIME – 1:50 ATTENDANCE – 1,684