Leino, Malone, Ham key Lumbermen victory

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MILLINOCKET – Matt Leino was one of the few Lincoln Lumber hitters who had experienced success against Bangor righthander Billy Chapman through the first five innings of their American Legion Zone 1 baseball game Tuesday night.

Well, sort of.

The recent Stearns High School graduate had been hit by a pitch and reached on an infield single in his first two at-bats.

It was enough success, at least, so Leino had a plan when he stepped to the plate after Scott Flannery hit a leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth inning of a 1-1 game.

“[Chapman] had been jamming everybody all day, and I heard their catcher say ‘keep it in, keep it in,’ ” Leino said. “So when it came inside again, I just turned on it and pulled it.”

The result was a double down the left-field line that scored Flannery with the go-ahead run. When Matt Malone followed with a mammoth two-run home run to left-center, the Lumbermen had the insurance they needed for a 4-1 victory at the James R. DiFrederico Memorial Baseball Field.

“Scott led off with a big hit, and then Matt Leino put us ahead and Matt Malone gave us some security runs,” Lincoln coach John Montgomery said. “That’s one thing we haven’t done all that well this summer, come up with the timely hits, but we did tonight.”

That offensive spurt, and a gutsy pitching effort by right-hander Jeremy Ham, improved Lincoln’s record to 13-6 and gave the Lumbermen a two-game lead over second-place Bangor (11-8) in the North Division with three games to play before next week’s Zone 1 tournament.

“It was a huge game for us,” said Leino. “They came in one game back, and I’m sure they were fired up, but we were able to pull through.”

Lincoln was fired up, too, and in the case of Ham perhaps a little too fired up at the game’s outset.

The Mr. Maine Baseball finalist from Lee Academy was wild early, hitting Bangor’s Tyler Jellison with the game’s first pitch and walking four of the next eight batters.

But Ham stranded four Bangor baserunners over the first two innings and then settled down nicely, walking no one over the final five innings of a complete-game four-hitter.

“The first pitch, when I hit the first batter, I had never done that before,” Ham said. “I knew I had to settle down. I finally had to slow down my curve, I guess I had too much adrenaline at the beginning. I didn’t have my good stuff, I just tried to battle through.”

While Ham worked through control issues, Chapman breezed early, throwing just 36 pitches in the first four innings.

Lincoln broke the scoreless tie with an unearned run in the fifth. Nate Cousineau hit a two-out single to left, and came around to score when Matt Wark’s single got past Bangor left fielder Mike Larochelle.

Bangor tied the game in the sixth, as Brian Hackett pulled a leadoff double down the left-field line and scored on a two-out single to left by Brian Worster.

But Lincoln regained control in the bottom of the inning, thanks to a run of three straight extra-base hits off Chapman capped by Malone’s second home run of the summer.

“Billy pitched well, but he got a couple up in the strike zone and they hit them,” said Bangor coach Jay Kemble. “They’re big, strong kids, and they don’t get cheated on their swings.”

LINCOLN LUMBER 4, COMRADES 1

Bangor (11-8) Lincoln (13-6)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Jellison, cf 3 0 0 0 Ham, p 2 0 0 0

Means, ss 2 0 0 0 Gardner lf 3 0 0

B.Hackett, 3b 3 1 1 0 Flannery, 2b 2 0

Murphy, rf 2 0 0 0 Leino, 3b 2 1 1

Young, 1b 3 0 0 0 Malone, 1b 3 1 2

Worster, c 3 0 1 1 Lasko, c 3 0 0

Dowe, dh 3 0 1 0 Barnett, rf 3 0 0

M.LaRochelle, lf 1 0 0 0 Cousineau, ss 2 0

a-Jor. Heath 1 0 0 0 Wark, cf 2 0 0

N.LaRochelle, 2b 2 0 1 0

Totals 23 1 4 1 Totals 22 4 7 3

a-grounded out for M. LaRochelle in 7th

Bangor 000 001 0 ? 1

Lincoln 000 013 x ? 4

E?M. LaRochelle; Ham; LOB?Bangor 6, Lincoln 4; 2B?B. Hackett; Flannery, Leino; HR?Malone; DP?Means-Young; Ham-Cousineau-Malone; SB?Means

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Chapman (L,4-1) 6 7 4 3 2 3

Lincoln IP H R ER BB SO

Ham (W,4-0) 7 4 1 1 4 5

HBP?Jellison by Ham; Leino by Chapman; WP?Ham; T?1:27; ATT?75 (est.)