BANGOR – After getting a couple of unwanted shots in the arm before Thursday afternoon’s baseball game with cross-river rival Brewer, Bangor starting pitcher Joe Vanidestine was given two more by teammate Justin Libbey.

Unlike the ones he got in his non-pitching (right) arm as part of a physical earlier in the day, the latter two were much appreciated by the Rams’ starting pitcher.

Libbey belted a three-run double in the third to put Bangor up for good and made the defensive play of the game in the fourth on a diving stab and throwout off a scorching liner to the shortstop hole to lead the Rams to a 13-3 victory over Brewer at Mansfield Stadium.

“When guys like Justin make plays like that, that just gives you so much strength and energy,” said Vanidestine, who earned his first win of the season. “Plus, he had the big hit that gave us a boost.”

Bangor’s human booster shot and third baseman also delivered a two-out, two-run single to left in the fifth which cut the game short due to the 10-run mercy rule.

It was a somewhat surreal game for both teams as Libbey’s double was the lone extra-base hit and the Rams only outhit Brewer 8-6.

“It certainly wasn’t as dominating as it looked, but we’re improving each game,” said Libbey, who went 2-for-4 with a run, a stolen base, and five RBIs. “We had some key hits at clutch times and that’s how we won this game.”

Well, that and the fact Brewer committed eight errors which led to seven unearned Ram runs.

“In this game, you’ve got to play defense and we didn’t do that very well,” said Brewer coach David Morris, whose Witches dropped to 1-2. “All respect to Bangor, but we beat ourselves. That’s no disrepect to them, but I don’t think they came out and really shelled us. Our pitcher threw well, but we lost on account of a lack of defense.”

Brewer took a 3-1 lead in the third on Tony Doucette’s two-out, two-run sinking liner to right, but the Rams charged right back in a big way in the bottom of the inning. Two walks and an error set things up for Libbey’s bases-clearing shot to deep left-center field and the Rams weren’t done until they’d sent 10 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on three more hits and two errors.

“Justin’s hit was what got us going. Absolutely it was,” said first-year coach Jeff Fahey, whose Rams are now 2-1.

Before Libbey’s hit, the Rams seemed out of synch. They had committed two errors and managed just two singles.

“Joey works pretty slow and I don’t know if everyone kind of relaxes behind him or what,” said Fahey. “We did seem a little out of synch early on, but we made five errors last game and two today, so we’re improving.”

Despite the dull ache of a couple shots in his arm, Vanidestine managed to go the distance, throwing 52 of his 89 pitches for strikes. He struck out five and walked two.

“I gave some blood for my physical before I came here, so I was like falling over on the mound for a little while,” Vanidestine said.

Other Ram standouts were Ryan Worcester, who went 2-for-2 with two RBIs out of the ninth hole.

Bangor closed things out with five runs in the fifth on two hits and four Brewer errors.

“We had a couple innings where we gave them five or six outs,” said Fahey. You just can’t do that.”

Brewer was led by Joel Barrett, who went 3-for-3 with an RBI.

Rams 13, Witches 3

Brewer (1-2) Bangor (2-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Bouzan-Kal?ustian,ss 3 1 0 0 Vanidestine, p 4 0

Freeman, cf 1 0 0 0 Johnson, 1b 3 1 0

Barrett, 1b 3 0 3 1 Shea, 2b 4 2 1

Spencer, rf 3 1 0 0 Proctor, rf 1 1 0

Cote, 3b 3 1 1 0 Shain, lf 2 1 1

Doucette, 2b 3 0 1 2 Libbey, 3b 4 1 5

Bernier, dh 3 0 1 0 Bouchard, c 1 0 1

Griffin, c 3 0 0 0 Anderson, lf-rf 2 2 0

a-Sutherland 0 0 0 0 Bombardier, ss 2 0 0

Work, lf 2 0 0 0 b-Campbell 1 1 0

Worcester, cf 2 2 2 2

Totals 24 3 6 3 Totals 26 13 8 10

a-ran for Griffin in the second

b-reached on error for Bombardier in the fifth

Brewer 102 00 ? 3

Bangor 017 05 ? 13

E? Bouzan-Kaloustian, Freeman, Cote 2, Gomm, Griffin 3; Johnson, Worcester; LOB? Brewer 8; Bangor 5; 2B? Libbey; SF? Bouchard; SB? Barrett, Spencer, Cote, Bernier; Anderson 2, Shea 2, Libbey, Worcester, Vanidestine

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Gomm (L,0-1) 4? 6 12 6 5 3

Collins 0 2 1 0 0 0

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

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

BK? Gomm; WP? Vanidestine 3; PB? Griffin; T?1:56; ATT?117