BANGOR – The 1999 season hadn’t been a good one by Jeremy Karam’s standards.

Despite a .379 average, Bangor’s cleanup hitter entered Thursday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal playoff wanting to sweeten his batting stroke.

Karam and No. 5 hitter Shawn Bouchard teamed up to give the middle of Bangor’s order some playoff pop and lead the top-seeded Rams to a 14-4 victory over No. 8 Brewer at Mansfield Stadium.

“I’ve been in kind of a slump all year,” Karam said. “I guess come playoffs it all changes. The adrenaline starts pumping. I wanted to come out and hit the ball hard.”

That’s exactly what he did as he lined the first pitch he saw for an RBI double en route to sparking a 16-hit outburst by Bangor.

“Our team gets pumped up for the playoffs,” said Karam. “We like being here. It’s where our better players shine.”

Shine they did as Karam and Bouchard went a combined 6-for-8 with eight RBIs and five runs.

The game, which was briefly interrupted in the second inning by a downpour, was cut short in the bottom of the sixth due to the 10-run mercy rule. The 15-2 Rams will take on No. 4 Old Town in a Saturday semifinal tentatively scheduled for 8 p.m. at Mansfield.

The Witches (9-8) got off to a strong start with back-to-back, one-out doubles by Ryan Snell and Andy Thomas in the top of the first. Jeff McIntosh’s RBI single to right one out later made it 2-0.

The euphoria didn’t last long as Justin Libbey and Chris Shea hit back-to-back singles, Karam ripped an RBI double down the line in left, and Bouchard blasted a 405-foot, three-run home run to dead center off a 2-0 fastball from Aaron Jansen. Later in the inning, David Lisnik’s single to left made it 5-2.

Bouchard’s third homer this season brought the curtain down on Jansen after he faced five hitters.

“They were pretty happy about their two runs,” Bouchard said. “But after we came out and got five, we were pretty much all set.”

Brewer made it 5-4 in the fourth by scoring two unearned runs with two outs courtesy of a single, a hit batter, a passed ball, and two errors.

But once again, Bangor had a quick answer in the form of another five-run outburst.

Pinch hitter Dave Utterback led off with a single and was sacrificed to second before a walk and another single by Libbey (3-for-4) loaded the bases. Shea was retired on an infield fly just before the Witches thought they’d escaped the jam on a pickoff play at second. Reliever Andy Thomas fired to second and the tag was applied, but runner Matt Soucie was ruled safe.

Karam then lined a two-run single to right center before Bouchard hit a two-run single to left-center before scoring on an error.

“I’m not taking anything away from Bangor, but I really felt the pickoff at second was the pivotal play of the game,” said Brewer coach David Morris. “If he’s called out, it’s still 5-4 and we might have been able to come back.”

Not content with a 10-4 lead, Bangor put it away with four runs – three on Lisnik’s bases-loaded double – in the sixth. Utterback’s RBI single ended the game.

The last time Bangor and Brewer hooked up in the playoffs was 1992, when the Witches edged Bangor 6-5 in a nine-inning semifinal.

Rams 14, Witches 4

Brewer (9-8) Bangor (15-2)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Freeman, cf 3 0 0 0 Soucie, rf 3 1 0 0

Snell, ss 2 1 1 0 Libbey, ss 4 2 3 0

Thomas, 1b-p 3 1 1 1 C.Shea, p 4 2 1 0

Johnson, lf 3 0 0 0 Karam, lf 4 3 3 3

McIntosh, c 3 0 1 1 Bouchard, c 4 2 3 5

Spencer, rf 3 0 1 0 McAuliffe, 3b 3 2 1 0

a-A.Morneault 0 1 0 0 b-Chadbourne 0 0 0 0

Jansen, p-1b 1 1 0 0 Lisnik, dh 4 1 2 4

T.Morneault, dh 2 0 0 0 Johnson, 2b 0 0 0 0

Hatch, 2b 0 0 0 0 J.Shea, 2b 0 0 0 0

Largay, 3b 2 0 0 0 Civiello, 1b 1 0 0 0

Utterback, 1b 3 1 2 1

Baird, cf 2 0 1 0

Totals 22 4 4 2 Totals 32 14 16 13

a-ran for Spencer in fourth

b-hit by pitch for McAuliffe in sixth

Brewer 200 200 – 4

Bangor 500 504 – 14

E – Jansen 2, Thomas; C. Shea, Johnson, Civiello 2B – Snell, Thomas; Karam 2, Lisnik HR – Bouchard (3) LOB – Brewer 2; Bangor 4 DP – Libbey-Johnson-Civiello SB – McAuliffe, Bouchard S – Baird

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

Jansen (L,0-2) 1/3 4 4 4 0 0

Thomas 5 1/3 12 10 6 1 2

Bangor

C. Shea (W,5-1) 6 4 4 2 1 1

HBP – Jansen by C. Shea; Chadbourne by Thomas PB – Bouchard BK – Thomas TIME – 1:39 ATTENDANCE – 259