Albany rookie tough on Ox> Dogs take final game of series

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ORONO – Six-foot-four, 205-pound righthander Dennis Sexton is only two months removed from Division III Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He was making only his fourth start for the Albany Diamond Dogs when he faced the Bangor Blue Ox Sunday.

The 21-year-old Sexton went on to pitch eight innings of three-hit, one-run baseball as Albany snapped Bangor’s fourth three-game winning streak of the season, 7-1.

The Ox had improved their home record against the defending league titlists to 4-0 on Saturday night, 6-1, behind Chad White, Mark Hreben and George Tsamis.

On Sunday, Sexton, now 3-1 with a 4.94 ERA, retired the first 12 men he faced before hitting Hugh Walker in the leg to open the fifth. Walker eventually scored on White’s sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 4-1.

Manny Garcia’s double put runners on second and third with one out but Sexton fanned Karl Bussey and induced Willy Kingsbury to foul out.

His mates promptly responded with three insurance runs in the sixth.

“I threw a lot of two-seam fastballs, especially to lefties. I just went right after the hitters. I had a pretty good curve and I threw five or six change-ups,” said Sexton, a native of Des Moines. “And the guys made some great plays behind me.”

Sexton struck out four, walked two and hit two batters while throwing 59 strikes among his 96 pitches.

“His fastball ran away from lefties,” said Ox catcher Willy Kingsbury. “He proved that you don’t have to throw hard to get outs.”

White and Walker didn’t think Sexton was anything special.

“He didn’t have that much. But we were pulling off the ball. We were jumping at it. We were overanxious,” said White, whose RBI was his 29th which ties his career high.

“We beat ourselves,” said Walker.

Meanwhile, the Northern Division’s first-half champions unleashed a 13-hit attack, all at the expense of starter and loser Mo Christmas and reliever Scott Chesmer.

“We had a little talk among ourselves before the game [about improving our efforts and performance],” said Diamond Dog shortstop Joe Mariano, whose focus on hitting the ball the opposite way produced an RBI single in the second.

The Diamond Dogs received RBI singles from five other players as Rafael Mercado, Raul Santana and Jorge Moreno delivered them in the third and Tom Tegeler and Jose Santana had RBI base hits in the sixth.

“We had a total team effort today,” said Tegeler.

Saturday could have been dubbed Eastern Maine Night.

Brewer’s White drove in three runs with two singles and a sacrifice fly and Smithfield’s Hreben pitched three innings of hitless shutout relief.

“I’m just happy we won. That’s all I care about. We’re trying to get into the playoffs,” said former University of Maine center fielder White, whose three-RBI game was his second of the year.

White’s sacrifice fly in the second gave the Ox a 1-0 lead.

After Walker made it 2-1 with an RBI single off starter and loser Dave Garcia in the fourth; White lined a hit-and-run single to center in the seventh, stole second and eventually rode home on Carlos Mota’s two-run bad-hop single over Mariano’s head.

“I was trying to hit it to [the vacated spot at] short but I got out in front a little,” said White.

Mota had a little grin when discussing his good fortune on his one-out gift base hit.

“Sometimes, you hit the ball hard right at somebody. So I’ll take it,” smiled Mota. “Their shortstop told me to tell them not to be afraid to water the field.”

In the eighth, the switch-hitting White moved over to the right side of the plate against lefty Jerry Hasler and fouled off six two-strike pitches before shooting a two-run single over Mariano’s head.

“He has a pretty good curve but he hung that one a little bit,” said White.

Hreben, the Skowhegan High School and Husson College product, came on at the outset of the sixth inning after lefty Tsamis had limited the Diamond Dogs to six hits and an unearned run over the first five.

Tsamis, now 5-3, kept Albany off balance with his changeup, curve and fastball.

Hreben went mostly with his fastball and fanned two while facing just nine hitters.

“He was tough. He was aggressive. He came right after us,” said Mariano.

“This was one of my best outings of the year, by far,” said Hreben. “I threw my fastball for strikes and I threw five or six curves and got three groundouts off them.”

Blue Ox 6, Diamond Dogs 1

(Saturday Night)

Albany (6-8) Bangor (7-7)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

DeLeon, 2b 4 0 1 0 Ekelund, 2b 4 0 0 0

J. Santana, 3b 4 0 1 0 Garcia, ss 4 1 1 0

Lockett, 1b 4 0 0 0 Morrow, rf 4 0 2 0

Mueller, dh 2 1 1 0 Walker, dh 4 1 2 1

Mercado, rf 4 0 1 0 Ramsey, cf 4 3 3 0

R. Santana, c 4 0 0 0 White, lf 3 1 2 3

Simon, cf 4 0 1 1 Mota, lf 3 0 1 2

Mora, lf 3 0 0 0 Kingsbury, 1b 4 0 0 0

Mariano, ss 3 0 1 0 Bussey, 3b 3 0 0 0

Totals 32 1 6 1 Totals 33 6 11 6

Albany 000 100 000 – 1

Bangor 010 100 22x – 6

E – Garcia, Bussey 2; Mora, Simon 2B – Simon; Ramsey, Morrow LOB – Diamond Dogs 6, Blue Ox 4 DP – Ekelund-Garcia-Kingsbury, Garcia-Kingsbury; Mora-Mariano-J. Santana SB – Mariano, Mueller; White SF – White

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Albany

Garcia (L, 3-4) 6 1/3 8 4 3 0 5

Hasler 1 2/3 3 2 2 0 4

Bangor

Tsamis (W, 5-3) 5 6 1 0 1 2

Hreben 3 0 0 0 0 2

Mercier 1 0 0 0 1 0

TIME – 2:26 ATTENDANCE – 806

Diamond Dogs 7, Blue Ox 1

(Sunday Afternoon)

Albany (7-8) Bangor (7-8)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

DeLeon, 2b 5 2 3 0 Ekelund, 2b 2 0 0 0

J. Santana, 3b 4 0 2 1 Hine, dh 3 0 0 0

Lockett, lf 3 1 0 0 Morrow, 1b 4 0 0 0

Mercado, dh 5 1 1 1 Walker, lf 3 1 1 0

R. Santna, 1b 5 0 2 1 Ramsey, cf 4 0 1 0

Simon, cf 4 1 1 0 White, rf 3 0 0 1

Moreno, rf 3 1 2 1 Garcia, ss 4 0 1 0

Mariano, ss 3 0 1 1 Bussey, 3b 3 0 0 0

Tegler, c 4 1 1 1 Kingsbury, c 3 0 0 0

Totals 36 7 13 6 Totals 29 1 3 1

Albany 013 003 000 – 7

Bangor 000 010 000 – 1

E – White 2B – J. Santana; Garcia LOB – Diamond Dogs 7, Blue Ox 6 SB – Lockett S – Mariano, Moreno, J. Santana SF – White

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Albany

Sexton (W, 3-1) 8 3 1 1 2 4

Sullivan 1 0 0 0 0 1

Bangor

Christmas (L, 6-4) 3 8 4 4 1 3

Chesmer 3 5 3 2 1 3

High 2 0 0 0 0 2

Quinn 1 0 0 0 0 0

HBP – Walker, Ekelund PB – Kingsbury TIME – 2:20 ATTENDANCE – 982