BANGOR – After feeding Brewer a steady diet of ace lefthander Joe Vanidestine all season, Bangor Rams coach Jeff Fahey changed the menu for Thursday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal baseball game.

Senior righthander Jared Hockman drew the start and was more than up to the challenge. He pitched a mercy rule-shortened five-inning, two-hitter to help lead the Rams to a 12-1 victory over their cross-river rivals at a sun-splashed Mansfield Stadium.

“I was hoping I’d pitch. I wasn’t totally shocked,” said Hockman, who was told of Fahey’s decision Wednesday. “The way our defense is, I’m not sure how much of a difference it made who pitched today. I think we’re the best defense in the state.”

No. 3 Bangor, now 13-3-1, will play at No. 2 Skowhegan (11-2) Saturday afternoon.

Hockman, now 2-0, was quite efficient. His fastball had great location and he let his defense do most of the work while throwing 31 of 55 pitches for strikes.

“There have been times when coaches have looked by teams and tried to get by with their No. 2’s, but we didn’t feel that was the case at all,” Fahey said. “Joey’s been our No. 1 all year, but we didn’t think there was a lot of difference between Joey and our other guys, so we didn’t think it was that big a gamble.”

While Hockman and Co. were retiring the Witches, the Rams offense was cashing in on every opportunity Brewer’s defense presented it while scoring six unearned runs. The Rams were aided by three Brewer errors, four wild pitches, and eight walks.

“We wanted to come out and play well, but we didn’t. We didn’t help ourselves at all,” said coach David Morris, whose No. 6 Witches finish 11-7. “Bangor played a heck of a game. They came out and hit the ball and just flat-out beat us.”

Rams third baseman Justin Libbey (2-for-4) started things off with a two-out RBI double to the right-center field gap in the first. Bangor scored twice more in the second without a hit as the first two batters walked, Chris Bombardier reached on a one-out, run-scoring error, and Ryan Worcester hit an RBI groundout.

The Rams, who won three of four against Brewer, put it away by sending 20 batters to the plate over the next two innings and scoring nine runs on seven of their eight hits and two more Brewer miscues.

“When you make two or three errors and help us out that way, we’re going to take advantage of those things,” Fahey said.

The last shovelful of dirt on Brewer’s grave came after the Witches loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth, but could only come up with a single run as Hockman was aided by Bombardier’s double play.

Brewer second baseman Tony Doucette left the game in the fourth with what Morris said may be a hyperextended knee.

Rams 12, Witches 1

Brewer (11-7) Bangor (13-3-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R BI

Bouzan-Kal’stian,ss 2 1 0 Worcester, cf 4 0 2

Freeman, cf 2 0 1 0 Vanidestine, rf 4 0 1

Barrett, p-1b 2 0 0 0 Shea, 2b 1 0

Spencer, dh-rf 2 0 0 0 Libbey, 3b 4 1

King, 1b 0 0 0 0 Johnson, 1b 2 0

Cote, 3b 2 0 0 0 Bouchard, c 2 1

Work, rf 2 0 1 0 Proctor, dh 1 0

Griffin, c 1 0 0 0 Nickerson, dh 0 2 0

Doucette, 2b 1 0 0 0 Sullivan, lf 2 0 2

Bernier, 2b 1 0 0 0 Bombardier, ss 2 1 0

Sargent, lf 1 0 0 0

Caldwell, p 0 0 0 0

Knight, p 1 0 0 0

Totals 17 1 2 0 Totals 22 12 8 7

Brewer 000 10 ? 1

Bangor 124 5x ? 12

E?Doucette 3, Worcester; LOB?Brewer 3, Bangor 7; 2B?Libbey; DP?Bombardier-Johnson; SB?Shea, Johnson, Vanidestine

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Barrett (L, 4-1) 3 7 8 5 5 5

Caldwell 1/3 0 3 1 2 0

Knight 2/3 1 1 0 1 0

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Hockman (W, 2-0) 5 2 1 1 2 2

HBP?Shea by Knight; WP?Barrett 2, Caldwell 2; T?1:32; ATT?274