Brewer slugs its way to Zone 1 title> Surging Falcons win ninth straight to cap sizzling run to a championship

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BANGOR – After scoring 37 runs and giving up 21 in three games, it would be tempting to compare the Brewer Falcons to the Detroit Tigers, who also lit up Boston Red Sox pitching this weekend.

It would, before realizing the Tigers only scored 27 runs and lost one of their three games. Besides, the Tigers didn’t walk away with a championship of any kind.

Thanks to a blue-collar pitching performance from Brad Basso and a 14-hit attack, Brewer won its second American Legion Zone 1 baseball tournament title in seven years with a 9-5 victory over regular season and defending champ Orono at a misty Mansfield Stadium Sunday night.

Sunday’s win was the ninth straight for the 14-7 Falcons, who earned their sixth trip to the state tourney in head coach Dave Gonyar’s 10 seasons.

“We weren’t even supposed to be here and now we’ve swept through the tournament,” said Basso. “At this point, we’d almost rather keep on playing. I really don’t know if I want a week off.”

Both teams move on to the state tournament at Auburn Suburban Complex. Orono, now 16-6, will meet the Zone 2 (central Maine) champ at 12:30 p.m. Saturday while Brewer will take on the Zone 2 runnerup at 3:30 p.m.

Basso was touched up for 11 hits, but only twice did he give up more than one hit in an inning (two in both the third and sixth).

“I threw a lot of curveballs to keep them off balance,” said the Brewer righthander. “I only threw about 10 changeups, but they worked pretty well and I was able to work ahead in the count a lot.”

Basso, now 4-0, struck out nine batters while walking one and threw 86 of his 131 pitches (66 percent) for strikes.

Except for one key mistake – a first-pitch, belt-high fastball that Orono’s Jamie Kennedy rocketed some 350-plus feet to left for a three-run homer in the ninth – Basso was on his game.

“He seemed to get stronger as the game went on,” said Orono coach Dave Paul. “He threw his breaking ball for strikes and he battled us all night long.”

Right fielder Buzz Simpson started the key inning of the game for Brewer with a single in the fourth. Andy Thomas and John Beck followed with single. Two fly ball outs later, Ryan Snell delivered an RBI triple to right and Ricky McHale scored him with a single up the middle.

Simpson went 3-for-5 with an RBI to lead Brewer’s hit parade. He also swiped two of Brewer’s five stolen bases.

“We didn’t feel like there was any pressure on us coming in because we didn’t even know if we’d make it in,” Simpson said. “We felt like we were the underdogs, so we just let it all hang out.”

Six Brewer batters had at least one hit as the Falcons went on to score two more in the fifth and single runs in the sixth and seventh to take a 9-2 lead.

“We didn’t have one huge inning, but we just kept chipping away at them,” said Gonyar. “It’s one of our better efforts when you combine it with Brad’s pitching and our defense shoring itself up and making some nice plays.”

Aaron Civiello (3-for-4, RBI) paced the Twins offensively.

Sunday afternoon, crunch time came without any warning for Brad Wheaton.

One minute, Orono’s relief pitcher was sitting on the bench, watching his Twins take a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning.

The next, he was on the pitcher’s mound, warming up to take over for ejected starter Darrin Daniels.

His pre-relief preparation regimen? Five or six hurried warmup pitches after Dave Paul yelled “Wheaton, go down and warm up” with two outs in the third.

“I didn’t have very much time to stretch out or anything, but it worked out,” Wheaton said. “Normally when I come in we’re losing, or we’re up by a lot. That was definitely the most pressure I’ve had coming in.”

Then judging from the six-inning, two-hit effort he turned in to key No. 1 Orono’s 9-2 victory over No. 4 Bangor, it was probably the most grace he’s exhibited under it.

Wheaton used an effective mix of slider and curve ball to set up his fastball, which he spotted with pinpoint accuracy as he struck out seven batters and walked just one.

“He threw very good,” said Bangor coach Joe Nelson. “They got a lead and he came right at us and made us swing the bats, and they made the plays defensively.”

Daniels was ejected after singling two runners home with one out in the third. He tried to advance to second on the relay throw from the outfield, but Bangor’s Dave Utterback caught the throw between the mound and second base and threw to second, where John Johnson had Daniels dead to rights.

Daniels went into second with a hard slide, was tagged out by Johnson, and then ejected by base umpire Mike Bordick Sr. for an unsafe play. By Legion rules, Daniels had to sit out Sunday night’s game.

Given the emotion of the play and the sudden turn of events, Paul was impressed with Wheaton’s composure.

“For him, as a sophomore in high school, to come in in that situation and do the job he did was fantastic,” said Paul. “He threw hard, he threw strikes, and the big thing was, he had confidence.”

Bangor’s Matt Soucie greeted Wheaton with a single to right, but Wheaton retired his second hitter on a fly out. A run-scoring fielding error later, Wheaton notched the second out with a strikeout. Catcher Jason Folsom picked a runner off first to end the inning.

Orono struck for two more runs in the fourth on Josh Emerson’s two-out, two-run double to right center field.

The big blow came in the fifth as Zach Gasaway crushed a first-pitch fastball from Comrades’ reliever Travis Brooker over the right field fence some 345 feet out for a three-run homer.

Emerson, Jason Sirois, Jamie Kennedy, and Gasaway each had two hits.

Bangor’s only repeat hitter, catcher Shawn Bouchard, went 2-for-3 for the 12-9 Comrades.

Falcons 9, Twins 5

(Championship, Sunday Night)

No. 3 Brewer (14-7) No. 1 Orono (16-6)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Freeman, lf 6 0 0 1 Sirois, ss 5 1 1 0

Snell, 2b 5 2 2 1 Montgomery,lf 5 1 2 0

McHale, c 5 1 2 1 Civiello, cf 4 1 3 1

C.Harvey, dh 3 0 0 0 Kennedy, 1b 5 1 2 3

Saunders, cf 5 1 2 1 Gasaway, rf-3b 5 1 1 0

Simpson, rf 5 2 3 1 Cote, p-rf 2 0 1 0

Thomas, 1b 5 1 2 1 Donato, rf 2 0 0 0

Beck, 3b 5 2 1 1 Wheaton, 3b 2 0 0 0

J.Harvey, ss 3 0 2 1 Brown, p 1 0 0 0

a-Emerson 1 0 0 0

Folsom, c 4 0 1 1

Powers, 2b 3 0 0 0

b-Goody 1 0 0 0

Obed, 2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 42 9 14 8 Totals 40 5 11 5

a-grounded out for Brown in ninth

b-reached on error for Powers in eighth

Brewer 001 421 100 – 9

Orono 001 001 003 – 5

E – Freeman, Snell 2, J.Harvey; Montgomery, Gasaway, Cote, Wheaton 2B – Snell, Saunders; Sirois, Civiello 3B – Snell HR – Kennedy (8) LOB – Brewer 10; Orono 11 SB – Simpson 2, Thomas, Beck 2; Sirois SF – J.Harvey

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Brewer

Basso (W,4-0) 9 11 5 4 1 9

Orono

Cote (L,3-3) 5 10 7 5 1 3

Brown 4 4 2 1 1 1

HBP – C.Harvey by Cote; Civiello by Basso, Brown by Basso PB – Folsom TIME – 2:34 ATTENDANCE – 274

Twins 9, Comrades 2

(Sunday Afternoon)

No. 4 Bangor (12-9) No. 1 Orono (16-5)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Baird, cf 4 0 1 0 Sirois, ss 5 1 2 0

Johnson, 2b 3 0 0 0 Obed, 2b 4 1 0 0

C.Shea, 3b 4 0 1 0 Daniels, p 2 0 1 2

Karam, rf 3 1 0 0 Wheaton, p 2 0 0 0

Soucie, lf 4 1 1 0 Kennedy, 1b 4 2 2 0

Utterback,1b 3 0 0 0 Civiello, cf 3 1 0 0

a-Lynch 1 0 0 0 Gasaway, 3b 4 2 2 3

J.Shea, ss 2 0 0 1 Cote, rf 4 0 1 1

b-Bombardier 1 0 0 0 Folsom, c 4 1 1 0

Bouchard, c 3 0 2 0 Emerson, lf 4 1 2 2

c-Proctor 1 0 0 0

Lisnik, dh 3 0 0 0

Totals 32 2 5 1 Totals 36 9 11 8

a-struck out for Utterback in ninth

b-struck out for J. Shea in ninth

c-grounded out for Bouchard in ninth

Bangor 000 101 000 – 2

Orono 012 231 00x – 9

E – Karam, J. Shea; Sirois 2B – Bouchard; Emerson HR – Gasaway (6) LOB – Bangor 6; Orono 5 DP – Wheaton-Sirois-Kennedy SB – Baird, Soucie SF – J. Shea

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Bangor

Dionne (L,3-2) 4 7 6 6 2 4

Brooker 4 4 3 2 0 5

Orono

Daniels 3 3 0 0 1 0

Wheaton (W,3-0) 6 2 2 1 1 7

PB – Bouchard TIME – 2:08 ATTENDANCE – 227