BANGOR – Among the 39 plate appearances in Bangor’s 11-4 baseball win over cross-river rival Brewer on Thursday were the usual baseball hodge-podge of hot smashes, strikeouts, and groundouts.

But ask any of the Rams, and they’ll probably tell you there was one trip to the plate that succinctly illustrated the traits that led to the gritty season-ending victory at Mansfield Stadium.

It belonged to junior Kevin Proctor in the fourth inning.

Proctor fell behind 0-2. With two outs. In a game his team already led 6-1.

Then he watched reliever Josh Caldwell throw three straight balls, and he went to work.

Proctor fouled off four straight pitches before singling in Shawn Bouchard from second … and eventually coming around to score the Rams’ eighth run.

“He probably walked me four times, but I knew it wouldn’t do us any good at that point,” Proctor said with a grin. “I wanted to hit the ball and I just waited for a good pitch.”

Brewer coach David Morris said the at-bat was huge.

“He really killed us,” Morris said. “We took him to 3-and-2 and he just worked our pitcher and worked our pitcher and came up with that big hit.”

That’s the kind of day it was for the Rams, as they outhit the Witches 13-10 but found ways to foil Brewer opportunities all game long.

Senior pitcher Joe Vanidestine struggled with control early but used a sharp, biting curve in the middle innings to hold Brewer at bay and improve to 4-1.

Vanidestine emerged virtually unscathed from two bases-loaded threats in the first three innings and with a 3-1 lead.

And at the plate, the Rams got three hits each from their 5-6-7 hitters – Josh Johnson, Shawn Bouchard, and Proctor – en route to the win.

Bangor finishes the regular season 12-3-1. Brewer drops to 10-6.

Brewer broke through for a run against Vanidestine in the first inning on two hits but left the bases loaded. The Witches would also come up empty in the third after loading the bases.

Those opportunities were sorely missed.

“I think had we come up with a couple big hits there, we may have knocked him out,” Brewer coach Morris said. “But give credit to [Vanidestine]. He came back. He was a little erratic, but then, toward the end, his curveball started coming in.”

Bangor sent nine men to the plate in the bottom of the first, scored three runs, and took the lead for good.

Vanidestine struck out five and walked five, and admitted that early control problems made things interesting.

“[I was just trying] to get the outs,” Vanidestine said. “That’s a tough thing to do, it’s pretty plain, but that’s what you’ve got to do. And my team was playing great behind me.”

The Rams played error-free ball and cut down Brewer runners at third and home plate in key situations.

Bangor coach Jeff Fahey said that after the way the Rams had been playing of late, he wasn’t surprised with the offensive output.

“We were pretty confident that we were gonna score some runs. In the last three games we’ve had 15, 14, and 13 hits,” Fahey said.

“I was a little bit concerned early that they had the bases loaded a couple times, but Joey battled.”

Brewer got two hits apiece from Joel Barrett and Joe Griffin.

Bangor 11, Brewer 4

Brewer (10-6) Bangor (12-3-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Bouzan-Kalstn, ss 4 1 1 0 Worcester, cf 5 0

Freeman, cf 2 2 1 1 Vanidestine, p 3 2 1

Barrett, 1b 3 0 2 0 Shea, 2b 5 0 2

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

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

Work, lf 3 0 0 0 Bouchard, c 4 2 2

Doucette, 2b 4 0 1 0 Proctor, dh 3 1 3

Griffin, c 4 0 2 0 Anderson, lf 0 0 0

a-Sargent 0 0 0 0 Sullivan, rf 1 0 0

Bernier, dh 1 0 0 0 Bombardier, ss 4 0 1

Carey, dh 1 1 1 0

Totals 29 4 10 2 Totals 30 11 13 10

a-ran for Griffin in sixth

Brewer 100 012 0 ? 4

Bangor 300 530 x ? 11

E?Doucette, Cote, Work, Griffin; LOB?Brewer 10, Bangor 10; 2B?Worcester; 3B?Vanidestine; DP?Doucette-Bouzan-Kaloustian; Shea-Bombardier-Johnson; SF?Libbey; SB?Cote, Work

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

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

Caldwell 3? 6 5 5 3 3

Sutherland ? 3 3 3 2 0

Collins 1 1/3 0 0 0 1 0

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Vanidestine (W, 4-1) 7 10 4 4 5 5

HBP?Sullivan by Caldwell; WP?Knight; Vanidestine 3; BK?Caldwell; PB?Griffin; T?2:25; ATT?150 (est.)