Spirit slip past Lumberjacks in season finale Bangor finishes first year 42-49

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ORONO – Bangor couldn’t make it a clean sweep and end the Northeast League season with a streak, but the Lumberjacks did take things down to the final out for the third straight game.

The ‘Jacks had the tying run at second in speedster Schuyler Doakes with one out in the ninth, but North Shore reliever Chad Bircher stranded him there by striking out hot-hitting Mark Burke and getting Donnie Ross to line out to left as the Spirit pulled out a 6-5 victory over Bangor at Mahaney Diamond Monday night.

“This is probably the most fire we’ve had that I’ve seen the last four games than I saw all year,” said pitcher-coach Kevin Pincavitch. “A lot of it is attitude and the last three games shows that.”

Bangor finishes the second half fourth in the north division with a 21-25 record. The Lumberjacks compiled an overall record of 42-49 this season. North Shore of Lynn, Mass., is 26-20 and will advance to the playoffs against Quebec.

With the score tied 2-2, North Shore broke it open with a four-run seventh. Bryan Caruso started things off with a single to right and John Schmitz reached on an error by Santiago Henry. A wild pitch moved them over before Jason Startari walked and Caruso scored on a sacrifice fly. Eddie Muth’s triple to the right-center field fence cleared the bases, then Rob Fischer capped the scoring binge with a sacrifice fly.

Bangor got two runs back in its half of the seventh on back-to-back, one-out walks to Doakes and Brad Hargreaves, a double steal, and a two-out double to the right-field corner by Ross.

The Lumberjacks cut the deficit to one run in the eighth as Todd Brock reached on an error with one out and scored on Steve O’Sullivan’s two-out triple to the center field warning track. O’Sullivan ran through the stop sign of third base coach Josh Brinkley, but abruptly stopped, fell down, and crawled back to third and slapped the bag a split-second before he was tagged.

O’Sullivan was caught stealing on a failed suicide squeeze bunt attempt by Doakes, who missed a 2-1 fastball, allowing catcher Bryan Caruso to tag out O’Sullivan.

Bangor took a 2-0 lead in the first with walks to Hargreaves and Ross followed by a two-out single to left by Juan LeBron. The Spirit scored once in the second via Bill Mahone’s two-out RBI single to center and then tied it in the third on a Startari walk just before Carlos Sepulveda’s RBI double down the left-field line.

Doakes swiped four bases Monday to bring his season total to a league-leading 29.

“I just try to get on base and shake things up,” Doakes said. “I’m just so happy … I mean, I give thanks to Kash [Beauchamp] for bringing me here and believing in me after Allentown released me.”

GAME NOTES – The Lumberjacks announced award winners for the season with catcher Hargreaves earning the team MVP award after a season in which he hit .248 with 20 RBIs, a career-high 34 runs, and 12 stolen bases. The most valuable pitcher was pitcher-coach Pincavitch, who led the team with a 7-3 record. He also had a 4.04 ERA with 68 strikeouts and 27 walks in 93 2/3 innings. Santiago Henry was named most valuable reliever. Henry went 5-5 with six saves and threw 72 2/3 innings.

Designated hitter/outfielder Lorenzo de la Cruz showed his frustration at the end of a disappointing season when he was called out on strikes in the bottom of the seventh. De la Cruz bumped into home plate umpire John Conrad while arguing the call and the ejection. He abruptly pushed Conrad back, prompting first base umpire Tom Clark to rush in to prevent further retaliation. He, too, was shoved by de la Cruz, who was then restrained by teammates and led back to the dugout.

“I’m sure there will some kind of suspension next year,” said Beauchamp when asked about the ramifications of de la Cruz’s outburst. “There’s a lot of frustration there and he was told to get back in the box before he was ready. It just kind of boiled over.”

SPIRIT 6, LUMBERJACKS 5

NORTH SHORE (26-20) BANGOR (21-25)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Schmitz, 3b 4 1 0 0 Doakes, cf 4 1 0

Startari, ss 2 2 0 0 Hargreaves, c 2 2 0

Sepulveda, rf 4 0 2 2 de la Cruz, dh 3 0

Muth, lf 5 1 2 2 Burke, dh 1 0 0

Fischer, cf 3 0 1 1 Ross, 1b 4 1 2

Schmitt, 1b 3 1 0 0 LeBron, lf 4 0 2

Riordan, dh 4 0 1 0 Thompson, rf 4 0 0

Mahone, 2b 4 0 2 1 Brock, 3b 3 1 0

Caruso, c 3 1 1 0 Martinez, ss 4 0 0

O’Sullivan, 2b 4 0 1 1

Totals 32 6 9 6 Totals 33 5 8 5

North Shore 011 000 400 ? 6

Bangor 200 000 210 ? 5

E?Schmitz; Doakes, Henry; LOB?North Shore 8, Bangor 8; 2B?Sepulveda; Ross, Brock; 3B?Muth; O’Sullivan; S?Startari; Hargreaves; SF?Fischer, Sepulveda; SB?Doakes 4, Hargreaves 2

North Shore IP H R ER BB SO

Crawford 5 3 2 0 3 5

Strickland (W,3-1) 2 3 2 2 2 3

Bircher (S,5) 2 2 1 0 0 3

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Vigue 6 5 2 2 3 3

Henry (L,5-5) 3 4 4 2 2 3

HBP?Fischer by Vigue, Brock by Crawford; WP?Vigue 2; PB?Caruso2; T?3:07; ATT? 700 (est.)