HAMPDEN – Bangor’s Josh Young was his usual overwhelming pitching self for most of Thursday’s Class A baseball battle between the Rams and Hampden Academy.

And when he deviated from that dominance momentarily, his defense bailed him out.

The senior righthander pitched a three-hitter as Bangor earned a 6-3 victory at Bordick Park, striking out 13 batters and walking three as the Rams improved to 3-1 on the season.

Eight of Young’s punchouts came on called third strikes, including all six of his strikeouts over the first three innings.

While Young stymied the Broncos’ batters, Bangor’s offense amassed 11 hits, 10 off Hampden starter Pat Moran. Young, Brian Hackett, and No. 9 hitter Nick Larochelle each had two hits for the Rams, who put their leadoff batter on base in six of the seven innings.

“I think our kids had been hearing things about Hampden being the team to beat,” said Bangor coach Jeff Fahey, “and they wanted to prove something. We swung the bats pretty well, we had 11 hits, and we played flawless defense.”

Bangor held a 6-0 lead through 41/2 innings, and with Young holding a no-hitter to that point, the Rams seemed in complete control.

But one pitch changed that, a 1-0 Young fastball that Hampden first baseman Chris Pease lofted beyond the fence in center field for a solo home run that ended both the no-hit and shutout bids.

“It got to my head a little bit,” said Young of the blast, “but I would have been disappointed if he didn’t take me out on that, because I left it right there and he’s a great hitter. I expected it as soon as I let go of the pitch. It took me a few batters to get over it, because I hadn’t given up a run in a while.”

The Broncos (1-1) added two more runs in the inning to close the gap to 6-3, with Jason Huntley scoring on Bangor’s only error of the game and Blaine Meehan scoring on a single by Billy Shannon.

Hampden was poised for an even bigger rally, loading the bases with two outs before Young got some help from his defense as Hackett made a barehanded grab of a slow roller down the third-base line and threw out Ian Lee at first to end the inning.

“At first I hadn’t made up my mind where I was going with it,” said Hackett, a junior. “I was pondering whether to let it go foul, but instinct took over and I just picked it up and threw the guy out.”

“When you’ve got the defense behind you, you can just pitch your game,” added Young. “It’s basically a trust factor with your defense. I trust my defense a ton.”

Bangor took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by Hackett.

Nate Hall singled home a run in the fourth to highlight a three-run Bangor uprising, and the Rams capitalized on a pair of Hampden errors, a passed ball, and singles by Young and Mike Larochelle to score two more runs in the top of the fifth.

“Young did a great job,” said Hampden coach Marc Halsted. “He dominated the first three innings, and then our kids started to compete and from there on out it was a pretty even ballgame.”

RAMS 6, BRONCOS 3

Bangor (3-1) Hampden Acad. (1-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Hall lf 5 2 1 1 Morris ss 4 0 0

Heath ss 3 0 1 0 Shannon 2b 3 0 1

Prentiss cf 3 0 0 0 Moran p-rf 2 0 0

a-DeRosa 1 0 0 0 Lee c 3 0 0 0

Hackett 3b 4 0 2 1 Pease 1b 2 1 1

b-Sturgeon 0 0 0 0 McLean cf 2 0 0

Dowe c 4 0 1 0 Lawson cf 1 0 0

Young p 3 1 2 0 Huntley rf-p 3 1 0

c-Eremita 0 1 0 0 Curran 3b 2 0 0

Ingraham rf 2 1 1 0 Sugesawa lf 1 0 0

d-Anderson 1 0 0 0 Meehan lf 2 1 0

e-Murphy 0 0 0 0

M.Larochelle 1b 3 0 1 1

f-Gallant 0 0 0 0

N.Larochelle 2b 3 1 2 0

Totals 32 6 11 3 Totals 25 3 3 2

a-flied out for Prentiss in 6th; b-ran for Hackett in 6th; c-ran for Young in 5th; d-hit into fielder’s choice for Ingraham in 7th; e-ran for Anderson in 7th; f-ran for M. Larochelle in 7th

Bangor 001 320 0 ? 6

Hampden Academy 000 030 0 ? 3

E ? Heath; Morris 2, Huntley, Curran; LOB? Bangor 11, Hampden 4; 3B?N. Larochelle; HR? Pease; DP? Shannon to Morris to Pease; S?Heath; SB? Hall 2, Heath 2, N. Larochelle, Sturgeon, Murphy

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Young W, 2-0 7 3 3 1 3 13

Hampden Acad. IP H R ER BB SO

Moran L, 0-1 5 10 6 4 1 5

Huntley 2 1 0 0 4 1

WP?Moran; PB? Lee; T?2:00; ATT?88