Orono remains alive; Bangor squad ousted

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BANGOR – Sunday was not a fun day for Zone 1’s entries in the American Legion Baseball State Tournament.

Undermanned Bangor took a 9-1 lead before New Auburn staged an improbable comeback and shocked the Comrades 10-9 in the second elimination game of the day.

In an afternoon winners’ bracket game, Oxford Hills of South Paris scored early and often as the Vikings pounded Orono 19-0 at Mansfield Stadium.

Bangor winds up its season 19-8 while 22-5 Orono takes on 19-6 New Auburn at 12:30 p.m. Monday.

In Sunday’s early afternoon game, Bangor appeared to be in total command after taking a 9-1 on three runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth as a demoralized New Auburn bench looked on.

The seventh began positively enough for Bangor as starting pitcher Bill Chapman sandwiched strikeouts around a walk to get two outs with a runner at first. It was not to be an easy inning, however, as four straight hits followed to score four runs – three of which came home via the second of three Jay Verrill doubles on the day.

“I think that three-run double plus some other clutch hits gave us the momentum to come back today,” said Verrill.

The eighth was no less difficult for Bangor, only this time it was defense that let the Comrades down as New Auburn plated four runs – three unearned – courtesy of three hits, the biggest of which was Derek McIntosh’s two-run double, and two Bangor errors.

As great a day as Verrill (3-for-4, 4 RBIs) had, it was McIntosh who was the game’s MVP as he had two hits and two RBIs, but made a greater contribution on the mound. He pitched 4? innings of one-hit, scoreless relief to earn his second win of the season.

“He pitched exceptionally well,” said Bangor coach Joe Nelson. “Early on, we were able to generate offense off our running game with guys on base, but he mixed it up and was very quick to the plate, which made it tougher for us to keep doing that.”

Bangor loaded the bases with two outs in the 10th, but McIntosh escaped the jam with a groundout.

New Auburn did its damage again after two outs as Verrill drew a walk in the 10th, Nick Lawler singled, and Joe Dumont flared an RBI single to right.

Bangor came into the tournament down four players as four of the five on the squad who also play Senior Little League opted to accompany their team to the Regional finals in New Jersey. Bangor’s depth took another huge jolt Saturday after outfielder-pitcher Andy Treadwell was hit by a pitch that broke his right wrist. Treadwell was supposed to start Sunday’s game on the mound.

In Sunday’s late afternoon game, the first five Vikings batters reached base safely, Oxford Hills scored three runs on four hits in the first, and the rout was on.

Starting pitcher Eric Cavers did the job on the mound and at the plate. The righthander held Orono to six hits in six innings of scoreless work and was one of four Vikings hitters with three hits each. He also drove in two runs.

“My curveball was working today and I used it a lot with my fastball,” Cavers said. “And offensive, it’s just really contagious for us right now. We’re hitting everything.”

Oxford Hills banged out 22 hits – four for extra bases – for 17 earned runs.

“We’re peaking at the time we need to and we’ve never had this luxury before,” said OH coach Steven Jones, whose Vikings had nine hits on Saturday.

Leadoff hitter Jeff Austin led the hit parade with four hits and two RBIs. Only one of the 11 Vikings who played was held hitless.

“It’s just like a win. You just have to put this out of your mind the next day because you can only worry about your game that day,” said Orono coach Jay Kemble.

In the first game on Sunday morning, Coastal Athletics of South Portland eliminated Waterville 8-3 in an eight-inning game cut short due to a forfeit. Waterville’s Chris McInnis was ejected after throwing his bat in disgust after striking out for the third out in the bottom of the eighth. Waterville had no one left on its bench to replace McInnis and had to forfeit the rest of the game.

Coastal 8, Waterville 3

Coastal Athletics (21-6) 000 212 30 – 8 16 2

Waterville (14-10) 000 120 00 – 3 6 1

Norton, C. Furbush (7) and M. Rutherford; Johansmeier, McInnis (6), Gardiner (7) and Cholewa

Vikings 19, Twins 0

(Sunday Afternoon)

Oxford Hills (20-4) Orono (22-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Austin, 2b 6 1 4 2 Merritt, 2b 0 0 0

Jones, 3b 5 1 2 1 Cousineau, 2b 2 0 0

Cavers, p-cf 6 3 3 2 Tidwell, ss 3 0 0

Stacy, c 4 3 3 0 a-Glossian 0 0 0

Boyce, ss 4 3 3 3 Wheaton, rf 3 0 0

Batchelder, lf 3 0 1 0 b-Levesque 1 0 0

Frye, lf 2 2 1 0 Thomas, dh 3 0 0

Olson, cf-p 4 3 1 1 Tewhey, 3b 2 0 0

Charles, rf 4 2 3 3 Malone, 3b 1 0 0

Newell, rf 1 0 0 0 Clark, 1b 3 0 0

Wall, 1b 3 1 1 2 Cole, c 2 0 0 0

Watson, cf 3 0 1 0

Jellison, lf 3 0 1 0

Totals 42 19 22 14 Totals 26 0 6 0

a-walked for Tidwell in seventh, b-grounded out for Wheaton

Oxford Hills 305 443 0 ? 19

Orono 000 000 0 ? 0

E? Newell; Merritt, Tidwell; LOB? Oxford Hills 9; Orono 9; 2B? Cavers 2, Stacy, Charles; DP? Austin-Boyce-Wall; Tidwell-Merritt-Clark; SF? Wall; SB? Stacy 3, Boyce, Cavers; Watson

Oxford Hills IP H R ER BB SO

Cavers (W,2-0) 6 6 0 0 3 6

Olson 1 0 0 0 1 0

Orono IP H R ER BB SO

Brown (L,6-1) 2? 9 7 7 1 3

Rand 1? 5 6 6 4 0

Goody 3 8 6 4 0 2

HBP? Stacy by Goody; WP? Rand, Goody; T? 2:21; ATT? 188

New Auburn 10, Comrades 9

(Sunday Afternoon)

Bangor (19-9) New Auburn (19-6)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Bombardier, ss 4 3 1 2 Plourde, cf 6 1 0

Proctor, rf 6 2 3 2 Robinson, 2b 5 1 0

Shea, 2b 5 0 3 2 McIntosh, c-p 6 2 2

Bouchard, c 5 0 0 0 Verrill, rf 4 3 4

Sullivan, lf-p 5 0 0 0 Lawler, ss 6 0 1

Chapman, p-3b 5 1 2 0 Gamache, 3b 3 0 0

Strout, cf 4 0 0 0 Dumont, 3b 3 0 1

Young, 1b 2 2 0 0 Flynn, lf 3 1 1

Tremble, 3b-lf 2 1 0 0 Dionne, 1b 4 0 0

Gagnon, dh 2 0 0 0

Miller, c 2 2 2 0

Totals 38 9 9 6 Totals 44 10 14 9

Bangor 001 035 000 0 ? 9

New Auburn 000 100 440 1 ? 10

E? Proctor, Chapman, Tremble; Robinson, Kelsea; LOB? Bangor 8, New Auburn 12; 2B? McIntosh, Verrill 3; DP? Bombardier-Shea-Young, McIntosh-Lawler-Gamache; S? Tremble; SB? Shea 3, Bombardier, Tremble, Proctor, Strout; Flynn

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Chapman 7? 11 9 5 4 6

Sullivan (L, 2-2) 2 3 1 1 2 0

New Auburn IP H R ER BB SO

Kelsea 5? 8 9 4 4 5

McIntosh (W,2-0) 4? 1 0 0 4 3

HBP? Flynn by Chapman; WP? McIntosh; PB? McIntosh; T? 2:52; ATT? 115