ORONO – The fans at Mahaney Diamond Friday night were treated to a terrific pitcher’s duel between a pair of lefties: Quebec’s Jordy Alexander and Bangor’s Tim Rall.

But Bangor’s Lumberjacks scratched across a ninth-inning run off reliever Dan Marchetti when Brad Hargreaves sliced a leadoff double down the right- field line, Donnie Ross drew an intentional walk, and Hargreaves scored on Lorenzo de la Cruz’s ground-ball single to center to earn a 1-0 win.

The throw to the plate by center fielder Carlos Rodriguez beat Hargreaves but catcher Rafael Pujols tagged Hargreaves on the head and home plate umpire Jamie Guerriero called him safe.

Pujols bitterly disputed the call but it was to no avail.

“It was an easy [out] call. I was in front of the plate. He [Hargreaves] never touched it,” Pujols said.

The base hit snapped a frustrating night for de la Cruz, who was fed a steady diet of off-speed pitches that had him out on his front foot. He had gone 0-for-3 and hadn’t hit the ball out of the infield.

“I told myself not to rush it,” said de la Cruz. “He threw me a fastball down the middle. It was a good pitch to hit.”

Alexander entered the game with an 0-5 record and a 3.76 earned run average but looked like anything but a winless pitcher as he had a live fastball, a good breaking pitch and an occasional changeup that he spotted effectively. He worked ahead of the hitters and the ‘Jacks never had more than one runner on base in an inning through his eight-inning stint.

Rall, who came into the game with the league’s sixth-lowest ERA at 1.65, had to pitch out of trouble throughout his outing but was always able to make clutch pitches when he had to.

Rall gave up singles to Benoit Emond and John Ballon to open the game but a Jake Burnham liner was turned into a 5-4 double play by third baseman Ross. The Capitales loaded the bases in the second on Eddie Lantigua’s bloop single and a pair of one-out walks.

But Rall caught Peter L’Italien looking at a 1-2 slider and Ross made a nice play on Emond’s tricky one-hopper before stepping on the bag for the forceout.

He stranded two more in the sixth by inducing Asdrubal Oropeza to fly out to center.

Rall was eventually lifted following a Carlos Rodriguez single with one out in the eighth and Santiago Henry came on to get the final two outs.

Rall allowed six hits through 7 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking three.

He threw 98 pitches, 62 for strikes.

The Lumberjacks, hitting a league-low .217, had just four baserunners advance beyond first through eight innings.

Alexander allowed just three hits with 13 strikeouts and no walks over eight, throwing 73 strikes among his 106 pitches.

Don Thomas went two-thirds of an inning to notch the win in relief. He fanned both hitters he faced.

“I didn’t have my good stuff. I went with my fastball in clutch situations,” said Rall. “My defense was my out pitch tonight.”

Rall also said pitching coach Kevin Pincavitch helped him with his mechanics during the game.

Pujols said Rall benefited because his control was a little erratic so they couldn’t dig in and look for a pitch around the plate.

“Tim has no fear. It’s great to see a rookie go out there and pitch like that,” said Lumberjacks center fielder Mo Blakeney.

“We had our opportunities but we just couldn’t get the big hit,” said Quebec’s Emond.

The teams will play again on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. before concluding their series on Sunday at 2 p.m.

LUMBERJACKS 1, CAPITALES 0

Quebec (15-19) Bangor (12-18)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Emond, lf 5 0 1 0 Davidson, 2b 4 0 0

Ballon, 3b 3 0 1 0 Hargreaves, c 4 1 0

Burnham, rf 4 0 0 0 Ross, 3b 3 0 0

Rodriguez, cf 4 0 1 0 de la Cruz, dh 4 1

Lantigua, 1b 4 0 2 0 Britt, rf 3 0 0

Pujols, c 4 0 0 0 Voltz, 1b 3 0 0

Garcia, 2b 2 0 1 0 Brock, ss 3 0 0

Oropeza, ss 1 0 0 0 Groce, lf 3 0 0

L’Italien, dh 2 0 0 0 Blakeney, cf 3 0

Charbonneau, dh 1 0 0 0

Totals 30 0 6 0 Totals 30 1 5 1

Quebec 000 000 000 ? 0

Bangor 000 000 001 ? 1

E? Ballon; LOB? Capitales 10, Lumberjacks 6; 2B? Davidson, Hargreaves, Brock; DP? Ross to Davidson; SB? Blakeney

Quebec IP H R ER BB SO

Alexander 8 3 0 0 0 13

Marchetti (L, 1-2) 0 2 1 1 1 0

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Rall 7 1/3 6 0 0 3 4

Henry 1 0 0 0 1 0

Thomas (W, 1-3) 2/3 0 0 0 0 2

HBP? Ballon; WP? Alexander; T? 2:28; ATT? 1,313