Brockton completes 3-game sweep of ‘Jacks

BROCKTON, Mass. – Brockton staged a comeback Saturday and used a 16-hit attack Sunday to sweep a three-game series against Bangor with 4-3 and 11-5 victories, respectively.

Bangor has fallen to 17-22 in the second half of the Northeast League season and is seven games behind north division leader Quebec with seven games left in the regular season. The Lumberjacks will be eliminated from the playoff race with either one more loss or a Quebec win.

After losing five of its last six games, Bangor is now 38-46 overall. Brockton is 23-16 in the second half and 46-36 overall.

On Sunday, Todd Brock, Sandy Martinez and Donnie Ross each had two hits in Bangor’s 11-hit attack, but it wasn’t enough as the Rox took a 6-3 lead in the second inning and never looked back.

Craig Lewis led the way for Brockton by going 3-for-5 with four RBIs, a triple and two singles. Francisco Matos was 3-for-4 with three singles and three RBIs. Nestor Smith also had three singles.

Greg Salvevold (2-2) got the win despite yielding nine hits and all five runs in seven innings.

On Saturday, Brockton made up a three-run deficit with four unanswered runs.

Bangor jumped on Brockton for a 2-0 lead in the second on a solo home run by Lorenzo de la Cruz and back-to-back doubles by Brock and Martinez. The ‘Jacks upped the lead to 3-0 in the third on a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded by Ross. The next batter was hit by a pitch, loading the bases again, but Mark Burke grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Brockton scored single runs in the third, fifth and seventh. Darren Blakely’s solo homer with one out in the seventh tied the game. The winning run came on Jake Daubert’s single through the right side with two outs and runners at second and third in the 10th.

Conor Brooks notched his first win of the season with 2 1/3 innings of one-hit relief.

Right-hander Chris Clark got a no-decision in his first start for Bangor after giving up two hits and a run in 3 2/3 innings.