BANGOR – And they want to improve the performance of metal bats?

Considering the first day of the American Legion Zone 1 baseball tournament featured 49 runs and 59 hits – in just two games – they might think about outfitting pitchers with body armor if the bats get any better.

On a day when calculators replaced scorebooks and the basepaths resembled merry-go-rounds, the only things that remained true to form were the seedings.

Top-ranked Orono (17-5) did its impersonation of the high school football team en route to an 18-13 victory over No. 4 Brewer in the Friday nightcap at Mansfield Stadium while No. 2 Trenton (17-5) outslugged No. 3 Bangor 12-6 in the afternoon opener.

Brewer (12-10) will take on Bangor (15-7) in a 4 p.m. elimination game Saturday. Orono plays Trenton at 8 p.m., with the winner securing the first of two berths in the state tourney.

“There’s some pretty good hitters in this zone,” said Orono coach Dave Paul matter-of-factly. “The teams swung the bats extremely well today.”

Friday night, Paul’s Twins certainly did that, to the tune of 17 hits in 40 at-bats (.425 average), as they erased an 8-3 deficit in the fourth and never looked back.

Ironically, it was the pitching of Orono starter Matt Allen that made the difference in this late-night slug-athon.

After throwing 103 pitches, being ripped for eight runs and seven hits in the first four innings, and almost getting the hook from Paul, Allen did an about-face and pitched back-to-back 1-2-3 innings on 23 pitches in the fifth and sixth.

“He didn’t have his best stuff, but he kept us in it,” Paul said. “He got more aggressive and went out and shut them out for two innings while we built the lead up to a comfortable margin.”

Orono’s eight-run explosion in the fourth seemed to re-energize Allen. While the Twins were sending 13 batters to the plate, Allen was able to refocus on pitching and reward Paul’s saint-like patience.

“That certainly turned it around for them,” said Brewer coach Dave Gonyar. “We’re swinging the bats well, but we’ll have to get better pitching to stick around.”

Shortstop David Means (3-for-6) and catcher Jason Folsom (3-for-4) helped lead the Twins’ offense, which produced six extra-base hits. Brewer had four: a two-run homer and a double by Craig Harvey and Ben Preston’s triple and double.

Friday afternoon, the Trenton Acadians used defense to win an offensive game by taking advantage of seven Bangor errors and turning four double plays – three of which were inning-enders.

The Acadians banged out 16 hits – six for extra bases – and got an outstanding relief effort out of Travis Bickford to venture into unfamiliar territory.

“It’s been kind of a jinx for us because the last few years, we’ve come up here and lost the first game and gotten in trouble early,” said Trenton coach Charlie Farley. “Winning this first one, I don’t know if we’ll know what to do.”

After erasing an early 2-0 Bangor lead with three runs on two second-inning homers, Trenton pushed the lead to 5-3 before Bangor made it 6-5 Comrades with a three-run rally in the fifth – the same inning Bickford (3-0) came on to hold the Comrades, who had nine hits off starter Matt McFarland, to four hits the rest of the way.

“He seemed to move the ball around pretty well,” said Bangor coach Joe Nelson. “We started to get to him a little bit, but then we’d hit some that went for line-drive double plays.”

Acadians 12, Comrades 6

Bangor (15-7) Trenton (17-5)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Baird, cf 3 1 2 1 McDonald, cf 6 1 1 0

Nill, c 5 1 3 0 S.Cole, ss 5 2 2 1

Karam, rf 3 1 1 1 Meyer, 3b 5 0 1 2

C.Shea, 3b 5 1 2 2 Worcester,c 5 1 2 1

Chadbourne,lf 3 0 2 1 Donaldson,lf 5 2 2 1

Utterback, 1b 5 1 1 0 Sadlier, dh 5 2 2 1

Carey, p 3 1 1 0 Sirois, 1b 4 1 1 3

a-Waring 0 0 0 0 T.Cole, 2b 4 2 3 0

J.Shea, 2b 3 0 0 0 Pinkham, rf 3 1 2 1

b-Hiatt 1 0 0 0

Johnson, ss 3 0 1 1

Totals 34 6 13 6 Totals 42 12 16 10

a-hit by pitch for Vanidestine in seventh

b-struck out for J. Shea in seventh

Bangor 200 130 000 – 6

Trenton 031 121 40x – 12

E – Nill 2, Johnson 4, Shea; McDonald 2B – Sadlier 2, McDonald, Worcester HR – Shea (2); Donaldson (1), Sirois (2) LOB – Bangor 11; Trenton 10 DP – Johnson-Utterback; S. Cole (una.), McFarland-S.Cole-Sirois, S. Cole-T. Cole-Sirois, T.Cole-S.Cole-Sirois SB – Baird; McDonald S – Johnson; Pinkham SF – Baird; Sirois

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Bangor

Carey (L,3-1) 6 1/3 14 11 5 0 4

Brooker 2/3 2 1 0 0 1

Vanidestine 1 2 0 0 0 0

Trenton

McFarland 4 9 6 6 5 2

Bickford (W,3-0) 5 4 0 0 2 1

HBP – Waring (Bickford) PB – Nill TIME – 2:30 ATTENDANCE – 126

Twins 18, Falcons 13

Brewer (12-10) Orono (17-5)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Beck, ss 5 1 1 1 Hite, cf 5 2 2 3

Harvey, p-rf 5 4 3 2 Means, ss 6 1 3 4

Gilley, c 5 2 3 1 Daniels, 3b 5 1 3 1

Saunders, cf 5 1 2 0 Kennedy, 1b 5 1 1 1

Preston, lf 5 2 2 4 Civiello, lf 4 1 0 1

Pollard, 1b 6 0 0 0 Allen, p 3 2 1 0

Raymond, 2b 6 1 2 1 Mooney, p 1 0 0 0

McHale, 3b 3 0 0 0 Cote, rf 4 4 2 2

Pinkham, rf 1 0 0 0 Folsom, c 4 3 3 4

Simpson, p 2 2 0 0 Turcotte, c 0 0 0 0

Waite, p 0 0 0 0 Crockett, 2b 3 3 2 0

Totals 43 13 13 9 Totals 40 18 17 16

Brewer 005 300 230 – 13

Orono 030 803 31x – 18

E – Preston 2, Pollard; Means 3, Daniels 2B – Harvey, Preston; Hite, Daniels, Allen, Cote, Folsom 3B – Preston; Kennedy HR – Harvey (3) LOB – Brewer 12; Orono 9 SB – Raymond 2, Saunders, Gilley, Harvey; Cote SF – Daniels, Civiello

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

Harvey (L,5-3) 3 2/3 11 11 9 3 4

Simpson 3 1/3 6 7 4 4 0

Waite 1 0 0 0 0 1

Orono

Allen (W,5-1) 7 2/3 12 12 6 7 6

Mooney 1 1/3 1 1 0 0 2

HBP – Saunders (by Allen), Pinkham (by Allen); Crockett (by Simpson) WP – Harvey, Simpson, Waite; Harvey PB – Gilley TIME – 2:54 ATTENDANCE – 248