BREWER – He stranded six in the first three innings.

And then it was lights out.

Brewer High School senior righthander Andrew Patterson retired 12 of the last 13 hitters he faced to pitch the Witches to a 2-0 Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal win over the Mt. Blue Cougars of Farmington at Heddericg Field Thursday.

Third seed Brewer, 15-2, will travel to face No. 2 Oxford Hills of South Paris, 14-3, in a Saturday’s semifinal. Sixth seed Mt. Blue, which went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, finished at 12-6.

Patterson struck out nine and walked two while scattering five hits en route to his third shutout and fifth win in six decisions.

Patterson, who has won his last four decisions and hasn’t allowed an earned run in any of them, according to Witch coach Dave Morris, threw 86 pitches of which 57 were strikes.

“As the game went on, I got more pop on my fastball and I went with it more,” said Patterson.

“He always gets stronger as the game goes along,” said Brewer sophomore catcher Mitchell Peasley. “They couldn’t catch up to his fastball.

“This wasn’t his best performance of the season but it was right up there,” added Peasley.

Patterson mixed in a curve and changeup to go with his fastball.

Steve Wells’ ground-ball single was the only ball hit out of the infield against Patterson over the final 4 1/3 innings.

His mates played errorless ball behind him.

“He wasn’t overpowering but he did the job. The best thing he did was keep everybody off balance,” said Mt. Blue senior righthander Brian Wells, who had gone 7-0 in his high school career, including 6-0 this season.

Wells turned in an impressive nine-hit performance. One of the runs off him was unearned. He struck out one and walked two while throwing 48 strikes among 75 pitches.

Brewer scored the only run it was to need in the first.

Andy Otis lofted a soft line- drive single into left center and Patterson reached on a slow roller that went for an infield hit.

Otis moved to third when right fielder Jake Hardy made a sensational diving catch on Kevin McAvoy’s foul fly ball and Otis scored when Hardy overthrew second.

Brewer added a run in the sixth on singles by McAvoy and Jeff Miller, sandwiching a walk, and Matt Grimes’ base hit off the glove of leaping first baseman Ben Saviello, who was drawn-in.

“The pitch was low and outside and I stepped into it a little bit and took it the opposite way,” “aid Grimes who atoned for a base-running blunder in the fifth.

“I was a little frustrated. I just wanted to make sure I stayed calm and didn’t worry about what went on [earlier],” said Grimes, who had two singles.

The Wells brothers, Brian and Steve, had two singles each for Mt. Blue.

WITCHES 2, COUGARS 0

Mt. Blue (12-6) Brewer (15-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Boyker, c 3 0 0 0 Otis, dh 3 1 0

Martin, 2b 3 0 1 0 Patterson, p 3 0 0

B. Wells, p 3 0 2 0 McAvoy, 3b 3 1 0

Hardy, rf 3 0 0 0 Kotredes, 1b 2 0 0

S. Wells, ss 3 0 2 0 Porter, pr 0 0 0

Saviello, 1b 3 0 0 0 Miller, cf 3 0 0

Silva, cf 3 0 0 0 Grimes, lf 2 0 1

Tripp, dh 2 0 0 0 Peasley, c 3 0 0

Webster, lf 1 0 0 0 B. Davis, rf 2 0 0

Stevens, 3b 0 0 0 0 J.T. Davis, ss 2 0 0

Tibbetts, ph 1 0 0 0

Totals 25 0 5 0 Totals 23 2 9 1

Mt. Blue 000 000 0 ? 0

Brewer 100 001 x ? 2

E? Hardy; LOB? Mt. Blue 6, Brewer 5; DP?Mt. Blue; SB? B. Wells

Mt. Blue IP H R ER BB SO

B. Wells (L, 6-1) 6 9 2 1 2 1

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Patterson (W, 5-1) 7 5 0 0 2 9

T? 1:45; ATT? 75 (est.)