Trenton rallies for eight in ninth> Acadians, Orono in state tournament

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BANGOR – In 1986, the last time the Trenton Acadians qualified for the State American Legion Tournament, the Boston Red Sox came one strike away from winning their first World Series in 68 years.

On Sunday evening, the Acadians were trailing defending two-time state AL champ Brewer 14-7 in the bottom of the ninth and were one strike away from elimination on five different occasions.

But the Acadians remarkably scored eight unearned runs with two outs, capped by Ben Donaldson’s game-tying bases-loaded double and Mike Sirois’ game-winning single as the Acadians shocked Brewer 15-14 to earn its first state tourney berth in 12 years.

That sent Trenton into the championship round where Orono overcame a 19-hit Acadian attack and a 6-2 deficit to rally past the Acadians 11-9 and capture its second Zone 1 title in three years.

David Means’ three-run single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh erased a 9-8 deficit for the Twins, who are 19-5 and will play Zone 4 runnerup Andrews Post of Portland in Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. game at the State American Legion Tournament in Sanford.

Trenton, 18-7, will face Zone 4 winner Cumberland at 7 p.m.

Means drove in a personal season-high five runs with a triple and RBI fielder’s choice to go with his single. That gave him a team-high nine RBIs in the tourney.

“I’m seeing the ball real well,” said Means who added that he has been making good contact.

Two walks, a Chris Crockett single and an error had loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh before Travis Bickford went to a 3-2 count on Means. The runners went on the pitch and Means hit a soft liner into right center to clear the bases.

“He threw me a fastball down the middle and I was able to bloop it over the second baseman’s head,” said Means.

Bickford said, “I didn’t throw it as hard as I could have. I didn’t want to walk him.”

Darrin Daniels knocked in three runs for the winners with his seventh homer of the season, a single and two sacrifice flies. He also pitched three innings of three-hit shutout relief to pick up the win.

“My arm had been sore since I pitched against Bangor earlier this month but it felt good tonight,” said Daniels who mixed in a live fastball, curve and change-up.

Orono coach Dave Paul said, “They got 19 hits but we didn’t make any errors. We fell behind 6-2 but we kept plugging away.”

Ben Donaldson had four hits for Trenton and Mike Worcester had three and four RBIs. Jason Pinkham had three hits to cap a 10-for-13 tourney and Adam Meyer had three hits.

“This was unbelievable,” said Trenton shortstop Seth Cole after the opener. “I’ve never seen anything like this and I probably never will again. It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

An ecstatic Donaldson said, “I don’t know what to say. We never gave up. We always think positive. We had a couple of big hits and they made some costly errors.”

Young Falcon reliever Ryan Hatch, who had pitched four innings of impressive five-hit, two-run baseball, got Donaldson to foul out and pinch-hitter Josh Sadlier to pop up to open the ninth.

Sirois started the rally with a ground-ball single to left and John Lewandowski lined a single to right. Pinkham then reached on an infield single off Hatch’s glove.

Two runners scored when Rick McDonald’s grounder went off the chest of shortstop John Beck. Seth Cole walked and, when Meyer grounded to Beck, Cole outraced Beck to the second-base bag. Beck elected to run to the bag instead of throw it.

“He [Hatch] was pitching from the windup and they weren’t holding me on so I hustled to the bag,” said Cole.

Worcester drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the 11th run and Donaldson followed by drilling a 2-1 pitch for his bases-clearing double to left. Falcon left fielder Ben Preston dove to his right but the ball skipped by him.

“I was sitting on the fastball and that’s what he threw me. I was having a tough day [0-for-4 previously] but that felt pretty good,” said Donaldson.

A wild pitch and a walk to Toby Cole followed by Cole’s stolen base set the stage for Sirois’ little fly ball into center that glanced off the glove of the fully-extended Beck.

“He got the ball in on my fists and I tried to fight it off,” said Sirois, whose hit was his fourth of the game.

Brewer catcher Chad Gilley said, “It just wasn’t meant to be.”

Brewer coach Dave Gonyar said things “snowballed” on his Falcons.

“Trenton made things go their way and we just couldn’t quite come up with the play we needed to end the game. Trenton did a great job. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” said Gonyar.

Sirois’ four hits paced Trenton’s 14-hit attack. Pinkham and Lewandowski had three hits each and McDonald belted a grand slam. Meyer had two hits.

Matt McFarland hurled 7 1/3 innings in relief to pick up the win.

Tom Pollard’s three singles and five runs batted in paced Brewer. He had eight RBIs in the tourney. Craig Harvey had a triple, two singles and three RBIs and Pete Saunders had three hits, including a double, and two RBIs. Saunders had nine hits in Brewer’s three games. Beck, Rick McHale and Buzz Simpson had two hits each.

Trenton coach Charlie Farley, sporting a spike wound in his ear that he suffered during the post-game celebration, said, “These kids find a way to win. They keep coming back. They’re unbelievable.”

Acadians 15, Falcons 14

(Sunday’s First Game)

Brewer (13-11) Trenton (18-6)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Beck, ss 5 3 2 1 McDonald, cf 4 2 1 4

Harvey, dh 5 3 3 3 S. Cole, ss 3 1 0 1

E. Pinkham, p 0 0 0 0 Meyer, 3b 6 1 2 1

Gilley, c 6 2 1 0 Worcester, c 4 0 0 1

Saunders, cf 6 1 3 2 a-Bickford 0 1 0 0

Preston, lf 5 1 1 1 Cwperthwite,p 0 0 0 0

Pollard, 1b 5 1 3 5 Donaldson, c 5 1 1 3

Raymond, 2b 5 0 1 0 T. Cole, 2b 5 0 0 0

McHale, 3b 4 2 2 1 b-Sadlier 1 0 0 0

Simpson, rf 5 1 2 0 Sirois, 1b 5 3 4 1

Hatch, p 0 0 0 0 Lewandwski,lf 3 3 3 0

Kiley, rf 0 1 0 0

J. Pinkham, rf 3 2 3 0

Totals 46 14 18 13 Totals 39 15 14 11

a – ran for Worcester in 9th inning

b – popped up and walked for T. Cole in 9th inning

Brewer 330 120 230 – 14

Trenton 010 401 018 – 15

E – S. Cole, T. Cole, McFarland 2, Meyer, Beck 2, Raymond 2B – McHale, Beck, Donaldson 3B – Harvey, Preston HR – McDonald (2) LOB – Brewer 10, Trenton 11 DP – S. Cole-Sirois SB – Beck, McDonald, T. Cole SF – S. Cole

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

E. Pinkham 4 4 5 4 3 2

Hatch (L, 3-2) 4 2/3 10 10 2 5 2

Trenton

Cowperthwaite 1 2/3 6 6 2 1 1

McFarland (W, 4-3) 7 1/3 12 8 6 2 6

HBP – Sirois, Kiley, S. Cole by Pinkham, Beck by Cowperthwaite WP – McFarland 2, Hatch 3 TIME – 3:10 ATTENDANCE – 221

Twins 11, Acadians 9

(Sunday’s Second Game)

Trenton (18-7) Orono (19-5)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

McDonald, 2b 6 2 2 1 Hite, cf 3 4 2 0

S. Cole, ss 3 0 1 1 Means, ss 4 2 2 5

Meyer, 3b 6 2 3 0 Daniels, 3b-p 3 2 2 3

Worcester, c 6 2 3 4 Kennedy, 1b 4 1 2 0

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

Sadlier, lf 4 0 1 0 Allen, dh-3b 3 0 1 1

Sirois, 1b 4 1 1 1 Obed, rf 3 0 0 0

Lewandwski,rf 4 1 1 0 Cote, p-rf 2 0 0 0

Kiley, rf 1 0 0 0 Folsom, c 4 1 0 0

Pinkham, cf 5 0 3 0 Crockett, 2b 4 1 1 0

T. Cole, p 0 0 0 0

Totals 44 9 19 9 Totals 35 11 10 9

Trenton 150 201 000 – 9

Orono 202 022 30x – 11

E – Donaldson 2, Worcester, S. Cole, Meyer 2B – Worcester 2, S. Cole, Kennedy 3B – Means, Meyer HR – Daniels (7) LOB – Trenton 12, Orono 8 SB – Hite, Folsom SF – Daniels 2, S. Cole

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Trenton

T. Cole 5 8 6 5 1 2

Bickford (L, 3-1) 1 2/3 2 5 4 4 0

Cowperthwaite 1 1/3 0 0 0 1 0

Orono

Cote 6 16 9 9 1 3

Daniels (W, 2-0) 3 3 0 0 2 2

WP – Cowperthwaite HBP – Sirois by Cote TIME – 2:41 ATTENDANCE – 264