Bangor rallies past archrival Brewer Hall, Dowe key seven-run sixth inning

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BANGOR – Less than 24 hours earlier, the Bangor High baseball team had endured frustration in the extreme – a shutout loss to Hampden Academy after its own pitcher was one out away from a perfect game through seven innings.

The Brewer Witches were poised to exacerbate that frustration at Mansfield Stadium on Wednesday, reaching Bangor ace Josh Young for three runs in the top of the sixth to take a 4-2 lead.

But on this afternoon Bangor’s bats would not go silently, as Nate Hall’s two-run single and a three-run double by P.J. Dowe highlighted a seven-run rally in the bottom of the sixth that gave the Rams a 9-4 victory.

“We have a lot of good hitters on this team,” said Bangor shortstop Jordan Heath, “but sometimes I think it takes us to get down a little bit to have more urgency to get some hits, and that’s when we can put some big innings together.”

Young started the decisive uprising with a one-out single, and a single by Brian Hackett and a walk to Mike Prentiss loaded the bases. Heath’s infield single to shortstop plated pinch runner Jason Eremita, and a bases-loaded walk to Nick Larochelle forced home pinch runner Jessefa Murphy to forge a 4-4 tie.

Hall then singled home Prentiss and Heath with the go-ahead runs, and Jon Ingraham walked to load the bases before Dowe cleared them with a blast to left-center that gave the Rams a five-run cushion.

“I had been hitting the ball pretty hard lately, just right at people,” said Dowe, a senior catcher. “I saw the curveball coming, and I said to myself I’ve got to hit this one, bases loaded, I’ve got to hit it.”

Young retired Brewer in order in the seventh, two on strikeouts, to improve his record to 4-0. The senior right-hander concluded a 96-pitch five-hitter with nine strikeouts and two walks.

“I thought Josh pitched pretty well,” said Bangor coach Jeff Fahey. “He likes to pitch the ball down and wasn’t getting that call so he got the ball up and to Brewer’s credit they whacked him around a little bit.

“But that’s the sign of a good pitcher, too, that when you don’t have your best stuff, you can still win.”

Bangor amassed 11 hits, including three singles by Hackett and two hits each by Hall, Dowe and Heath.

Brewer struck first in this battle of rivals. Andy Otis drew a walk to start the game and advanced on a passed ball and a single by Andrew Patterson before scoring on a groundout by Kevin McAvoy to give Brewer a quick 1-0 lead.

Bangor took a 2-1 lead on Heath’s two-out, two-run double in the second.

The game then settled into a pitching duel between Young and Brewer sophomore Corey Cushing, who scattered six hits over the first five innings and was rewarded with a 4-2 lead when Brewer mounted its own late-game rally.

Patterson singled with one out in the sixth and scored the tying run when McAvoy tripled to the center-field fence.

McAvoy then beat the throw home on an infield grounder by Kevin Kotredes to give the Witches the lead. A sacrifice bunt by Jeff Miller advanced Kotredes to second, and he scored when Matt Grimes singled to left.

RAMS 9, WITCHES 4

Brewer (8-2) Bangor (7-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Otis, dh 3 1 0 0 Hall, lf 4 1 2

Hardy, lf 0 0 0 0 Ingraham, rf 3 1 0

Patterson, 1b-p 3 1 2 0 Dowe, c 4 0 3

McAvoy, 3b-p 3 1 1 2 Anderson, 1b-3b 3 0 0

Kotredes, 2b-3b 3 0 1 1 DeRosa, ph 1 0

Porter, pr 0 1 0 0 Young, p 4 0 0

Miller, cf 2 0 0 0 Eremita, pr 0 1 0

Grimes, rf 3 0 1 1 Hackett, 3b 3 1 0

Peasley, c 2 0 0 0 Toomey, pr 0 0 0

Cushing, p-2b 3 0 0 0 Murphy, pr 0 0

Davis, ss 3 0 0 0 M. Larochelle, 1b 0 0

Prentiss, cf 2 2 1 0

Heath, ss 3 1 2 3

N. Larochelle, 2b 2 1 1

Totals 25 4 5 4 Totals 29 9 11 9

Brewer 100 003 0 ? 4

Bangor 020 007 x ? 9

E?Patterson; LOB?Brewer 3, Bangor 9; 2B?Heath, Dowe; 3B?McAvoy; DP?Brewer 1; S?Miller; SB?Miller

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Cushing 5 1/3 8 4 4 0 2

McAvoy L, 2-1 0 1 3 3 2 0

Patterson 2/3 2 2 2 1 1

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Young W, 4-0 7 5 4 4 2 9

PB?Dowe; T?1:40; ATT?300 (est.)