Vigue lifts ‘Jacks past Berkshire Bangor pitcher helps team end losing streak

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ORONO – The Bangor Lumberjacks got their seventh straight quality start from a member of the pitching rotation, but unlike the last three nights, they parlayed it into a victory Thursday.

Righthander John Vigue went 7 1/3 innings and struck out eight batters while giving up just two walks and five hits to lead the Lumberjacks to a 5-2 win over the Berkshire Black Bears at a sunny-turned-soggy Mahaney Diamond on the University of Maine campus.

“I felt like I had my good stuff, so I tried not to panic much and just continued to pound the strike zone and keep them off-balance with my offspeed stuff,” Vigue said.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak in which Berkshire rallied from behind for each victory.

Vigue improved to 2-2 after throwing 71 of 118 pitches for strikes.

“A lot of my pitches were working tonight, but my curveball was very good and I think that was the difference,” said Vigue. “Near the later innings, they looked for that more and it made my fastball more effective.”

Bangor is now 9-14 in the Northeast League’s north division and Berkshire is 12-15 in the south. Both teams are in fourth place.

A light rain started falling in the top of the sixth and turned into a downpour by the time Bangor came up to bat. The game was delayed a few minutes to put fresh dirt and drying agents around home plate, but action continued.

“It was kind of funny that the two innings it rained, it was raining hard when they were on the field and we weren’t,” said Bangor player-pitching coach Kevin Pincavitch. “Timing’s a good thing.”

Bangor broke onto the scoreboard first. Todd Brock ripped an infield single deep into the shortstop hole, stole second, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a wild pitch by Bears starter Dan Henderson.

The Lumberjacks took out some big insurance in the sixth as they scored three unearned runs off a single hit and two Berkshire errors. Mitsuru Kobayashi reached base on a fielding error at third and was bunted over to second by Brock. A two-base error in right field left runners at second and third as outfielder Kevin Forbes dropped a deep fly ball. Back-to-back walks to Lorenzo de la Cruz and Jude Voltz scored Kobayashi. Juan Silvestre then brought two more runs home with a single down the left-field line.

Bangor tacked on another run in the seventh after Kenichi Miura led off with an infield single deep on the left side. He went to second on a wild pitch and was bunted to third before Brock’s one-out single to left center scored him.

Berkshire threatened with one out in the eighth and plated two runs after Pete Paciorek doubled deep to the right-field corner, Ryan Jones doubled him home with a shot to left, and – a flyout later – Manny Crespo singled to center to score Jones. Donnie Thomas, who relieved Vigue after Jones’ double, yielded another single to Brady Williams before escaping further trouble by striking out Tito Cruz.

“We needed to get out of here with one. We never want to get swept at home, so that in itself was big,” Vigue said. “It’s a lot better getting on the bus having won than getting on after being swept.”

LUMBERJACKS 5, BLACK BEARS 2

Berkshire (12-15) Bangor (9-14)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Johnston, 2b 4 0 1 0 Kobayashi, ss 4 1 0

Forbes, rf 5 0 0 0 Brock, 3b 3 1 1

Paciorek, 1b 5 1 1 0 Ross, dh 3 1 0

Jones, lf 3 1 1 1 de la Cruz, rf 2 1 0

Hopper, cf 3 0 0 0 Voltz, 1b 3 0 1

Crespo, dh 4 0 1 1 Silvestre, lf 4 0 2

Williams, 3b 4 0 2 0 Tindell, cf 1 0 0

Cruz, ss 4 0 1 0 King, cf 3 0 0

Larned, c 3 0 0 0 Hargreaves, c 4 0 0

Miura, 2b 4 1 1 0

Totals 35 2 7 2 Totals 31 5 7 4

Berkshire 000 000 020 ? 2

Bangor 100 003 10x ? 5

E? Johnston, Forbes, Williams, Brock 2, Miura; LOB?Berkshire 10, Bangor 8; 2B? Paciorek, Jones, Williams S? Kobayashi, Brock; SB? Kobayashi, Brock, Silvestre, Hargreaves; DP: Voltz-unassisted

Berkshire IP H R ER BB SO

Henderson (L, 0-3) 6 1/3 6 5 2 2 3

Dimma 1 2/3 1 0 0 1 0

Home IP H R ER BB SO

Vigue (W, 2-1) 7 1/3 5 2 2 2 9

Thomas 2/3 2 0 0 0 1

Henry (S-2) 1 0 0 0 2 1

HBP? Ross by Dimma; WP? Henderson 2, Vigue; PB: Larned T? 2:55; ATT? 735