Hawaii tips Orono-Veazie U.S. South cruises past Europe; semifinals begin today

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BANGOR – It was an experience Orono-Veazie pitcher Andrew Patterson won’t forget, although he probably wouldn’t mind forgetting the early innings of Thursday evening’s Pool A Senior League World Series game against U.S. West champion Hilo, Hawaii.

The Hilo team scored seven runs in the first two innings, then held off the host Orono-Veazie squad 8-6 as Pool B closed out competition at Mansfield Stadium.

Hilo and Central Chesterfield, Va., are both 3-1 in pool play and will likely advance to the semifinals Friday.

Orono-Veazie, which won a World Series berth by virtue of its win in Maine’s District 3 tournament, finishes the World Series at 1-3.

“I had a blast in this tournament,” Patterson said after the game. “Winning the first game was awesome.”

In Thursday morning’s Pool A matchup, Bart Burgwyn threw a complete-game three-hitter en route to a 10-1 victory for South representative Central Chesterfield over Moscow, Russia, of the Europe region.

In the evening game, Orono-Veazie’s rally fell short as the host team had runners on first and third with two outs in the top of the seventh, but Hilo reliever Myles Ioane induced a groundout to end the game.

The early lead was key for the Hawaiian team.

“It’s always real good to get that, especially because they scored first,” said Matt Haasenritter, who doubled, singled twice and drove in two runs. “If not, it really could set a tone for them that things could have gone their way. … I think [Patterson] was trying so hard to find the strike zone that he was throwing them down the middle.”

Hilo had a 7-1 lead when Orono-Veazie piled on four runs in the third inning. George Keefe hit a double that drove in two runs, and Hunter Umphrey’s flare to left field plated two more. Andrew Otis and Brian Roach started the inning with two straight walks.

“I think this was our best game in the tournament,” said Patterson, who singled twice. “We hit the ball hard.”

That made it 7-5, but Hilo stretched its lead to 8-5 when Derrick Iida singled to right, got to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a fielding error. Ben Davis brought Orono-Veazie closer in the sixth with a pinch-hit single to drive in Umphrey, but Ioane struck out the first two batters in the seventh and after a walk and an error, got the groundout to end it.

Orono-Veazie outhit Hilo 7-5.

Patterson said his arm was bothering him a bit after pitching a complete-game win Sunday night. Indeed, he threw six straight balls to open the game and walked the first two batters he faced.

But after giving up three runs to Hawaii in the first and four more in the second, he settled down and allowed one more over the next four innings.

“They hit me pretty good today but I thought I controlled it after they scored those runs,” Patterson said. “I felt I controlled it after with my arm being sore.”

In the morning game, Burgwyn was coming off a complete-game effort against Canada Monday, but he wasn’t that tired going into the matchup against Russia.

On just two days of rest, Burgwyn gave up a single in the second, a double in the third, and then held Russia hitless until a single in the bottom of the seventh en route to the win.

He also struck out nine and walked three with a fastball, curve and changeup.

“I tried to keep my pitch count low and just throw strikes,” Burgwyn said. “My fastball and my curve were really working.”

Burgwyn had errorless defense behind him, too. Chesterfield caught one runner stealing and recorded nine outs on eight putouts and a flyout.

“My defense really helped me out today,” he said. “They did great.”

Meanwhile, the Virginia squad recorded 11 hits. Matt Reed led the winners with two singles, three runs scored and two RBIs.

Chesterfield used four stolen bases and four sacrifice bunts to move around its baserunners.

“We usually move people around and hit the ball well, and that’s our strong point,” said Matt Brown, who was 2-for-4 with two singles. “We like to start it like that, play small ball and get some runs early, swing the bats. It makes it easier for us once we get the lead.”

Ivan Kornev doubled in the third but was tagged out as he tried for third. Russia didn’t have another baserunner until Artem Chtcherbakov led off with a single in the seventh.

Burgwyn struck out the side to end the game.

Errors plagued the Moscow team – only five of Virginia’s 10 runs were earned.

“Errors in the field, and we lost the game,” said Moscow coach Mikhail Kornev. “We had mistakes on offense, because when I [said] hit and run the guy didn’t understand me. Error on the shortstop, one [run]. Error on the shortstop, two [runs]. We don’t make mistakes, we don’t lose.”

And a win over host team Orono-Veazie Wednesday may have been distracting.

“I think these guys were [happy all night],” Kornev added. “For the Russians, it was first time winning [two straight games].”

US WEST 8, ORONO-VEAZIE 6

(Thursday Afternoon, 7 innings)

ORONO-VEAZIE (1-3) US WEST (3-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Otis, 2b 2 0 0 0 Inouye, ss 2 2 0

Roach, lf 3 2 0 0 O. Otsuka, c 2 2 0

McAvoy, 1b 3 1 1 0 Haasenritter, rf/p 4 2

Thomas, c 4 1 0 1 Ioane, cf/p 3 1 2

Keefe, ss 4 1 1 2 Bondallian, 1b 1 0 1

Umphrey, 3b 3 1 2 2 Kaeo, ph 1 0 0

Hardy, 3b 0 0 0 0 Iida, 3b 2 1 0

Patterson, p 3 0 2 0 Spencer, ph 1 0 0

Peasley, rf 2 0 0 0 Yamashita, lf 2 0 0

Davis, rf 1 0 1 1 Yada, ph 1 0 0

Phinney, rf 0 0 0 0 Correia, 2b 2 0 0

Tardiff, cf 2 0 0 0 Pagan, p 2 0 0

Green, ph 1 0 0 0 S. Otsuka, rf 1 0 0

Totals 28 6 7 6 Totals 24 8 5 5

a-

Orono-Veazie 104 001 0 ? 6

US West 340 010 x ? 8

E? Otis; Keefe 2; Umphrey; Peasley; Iida 2; Pagan; LOB? Orono-Veazie 5; US West 5; 2B? Keefe; Haasenritter; SF? Ioane; SB? Patterson

Orono-Veazie IP H R ER BB SO

Patterson (L, 1-1) 6 5 8 3 4 2

US West IP H R ER BB SO

Pagan (W, 1-0) 5 1/3 6 6 4 3 1

Haasenritter 2/3 1 0 0 0 1

Ioane (S, 1) 1 0 0 0 1 2

HBP? O. Otska (Patterson); Bondallian (Patterson)

US SOUTH 10, EUROPE 1

(Thursday Afternoon, 7 innings)

US SOUTH (3-1) EUROPE (2-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Reed, ss 3 3 2 3 Poliakov, ss 2 0 0

McEnhimer, rf 2 0 0 0 Kondrashov, cf 3 0

Ullom, rf 2 0 2 2 Kornev, p 3 0 0

Childress, lf 4 0 1 1 Chtcherbakov, 1b 0

Brown, 1b 4 1 2 0 Kapoustkin, 2b 2 1 0

Childs, c 3 1 1 0 Ponomarev, ph 1 0 0

Byrd, 3b 1 1 1 1 Grachev, lf 2 0 0

T. Firebaugh, 3b 2 1 0 0 Belyev, c 2 0

L. Firebaugh, cf 1 0 1 0 Ivankov, ph 1 0

Marshall, cf 2 0 0 0 Paimoukhin, rf 2 0 1

Richardson, 2b 3 2 1 1 Kojevnikov, 3b 2 0

Burgwyn, p 3 1 0 0

Totals 30 10 11 8 Totals 22 1 3 1

a-

US South 011 401 3 ?10

Europe 010 000 0 ? 1

E? Poliakov 2; Kornev 2; Grachev; Kojevnikov; LOB? US South 8; Europe 3; 2B? Ullom; Kornev; 3B? Childs; SB? Reed; Childress; T. Firebaugh

US South IP H R ER BB SO

Burgwyn (W, 1-1) 7 3 1 1 3 9

Europe IP H R ER BB SO

Kornev (L, 0-1) 7 11 10 5 4 5

HBP? Burgwyn (Kornev); Richardson (Kornev); WP? Burgwyn; Kornev 3; T? 1:51; ATT? 350