Lumberjacks rout Jackals in Bangor debut

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BANGOR – At 5:29 p.m., the sun came out. Two hours later, the Bangor Lumberjacks were raining hits down on the visiting New Jersey Jackals.

The first professional run at Husson College’s Winkin Complex was scored at 6:55 p.m. by Jose Garcia. The first home run was hit at 7:13 Shin Uchino. By 7:30, it looked like a Bangor rout, but the new stands were still surprisingly half-filled despite pregame sales of about 2,500 tickets.

A little more than 1,000 fans saw the Lumberjacks usher pro baseball into Bangor by feasting on home cooking early and often with two runs in the first and five more in the second en route to a 9-4 Northeast League victory.

“I don’t know. We sold a lot of those seats. I wish I could tell you where those other fans were, but I’m still excited,” said team owner Chip Hutchins. “These guys are winning and we’ve got a good team. The people will come.”

Not as many people came as expected, but you couldn’t say the same thing about hits and runs.

Leadoff hitter Uchino combined with right fielder Garcia for seven hits to lead a 17-hit Bangor barrage. The Japanese shortstop singled, doubled, and homered while Garcia had four singles in five at-bats.

“One number I like is strikeouts,” said manager Kash Beauchamp, whose ‘Jacks are now 3-5. “I think we struck out four times today and two times in Brockton, so we’re swinging the bats well and putting the ball in play.”

They’re also throwing the ball well. Righthanded starter Matt Scheuing, one of six returning players from last season’s Bangor squad, improved to 2-0 after throwing 5 2/3 innings of five-hit, one-walk ball.

“A lot of it was getting the first strike and staying ahead of the batters and working quickly,” said the Lancaster, Pa., native. “I pretty much had all four pitches working and I was working my two-seam fastball in the corners and throwing that splittie (splitter) down in the dirt and changing the batter’s eye level.”

Bangor scored twice in the first with an RBI double to the right-center field gap by Jake Whitesides (3-for-4) and Donnie Ross’ first-pitch RBI single to left. The ‘Jacks followed that up with a six-hit second. Uchino started things off with a one-out, two-run homer to left center.

“Shin’s got some bat speed and he’ll run into one occasionally because he’s pretty strong too,” Beauchamp said. “I’ll tell you, he’s solidified himself in the leadoff slot.”

A single and walk followed, but Garcia was caught stealing at third. Mark Burke then walked before Ryan Sienko jumped all over a 1-1 fastball and drilled it over the fence in dead center for a three-run shot.

“Hitting’s always contagious and we feel comfortable and confident here after hitting here for a couple weeks,” Sienko said. “Now we’re home and we’re swinging the bats really well.”

The 3-4 Jackals scored three with two out in the sixth on a three-run shot to left center by Wade Almonte, but Bangor got one run back on a two-out RBI single to right by Brad Hargreaves. The final run came in the eighth on Mark Burke’s RBI single to right.

Starting off this seven-game homestand with a win – particularly a win against the team the ‘Jacks lost three of their first four games against – was vital.

“Coming back against them already, this early in the season, you want to make a stand so this is a big win in a good rivalry,” said Scheuing.

LUMBERJACKS 9, JACKALS 4

New Jersey (3-4) Bangor (3-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Anderson, lf 3 0 0 0 Uchino, ss 5 1 2

Conway, 2b 4 1 1 0 Garcia, rf 5 2 0

Goodman, dh 4 1 1 0 Whitesides, cf 4 2 1

Grijak, rf 3 1 2 0 Burke, 1b 4 1 1

Almonte, cf 4 1 2 4 Sienko, c 4 1 3

Veras, 3b 4 0 0 0 Ross, dh 4 1 1

Elder, 1b 3 0 0 0 Hammond, lf 5 0 0

Pagan, c 4 0 0 0 King, 3b 2 0 0

Infante, ss 4 0 0 0 Powell, 3b 1 0 0

Hargreaves, 2b 5 1 2 1

Totals 33 4 6 4 Totals 39 9 17 9

New Jersey 000 103 000 ? 4

Bangor 250 001 10x ? 9

E?Pagan, Infante 2, King 2; LOB?NJ 5, Bangor 12; 2B?Grijak 2, Uchino, Whitesides; HR?Almonte (1); Uchino (1), Sienko (1); DP?Bangor 2; SB?Anderson; Garcia, Ross

New Jersey IP H R ER BB SO

Guzman (L,0-2) 1 2/3 8 7 7 2 0

Neiser 3 1/3 5 0 0 0 4

Darcy 2 4 2 2 2 1

Grezlovski 1 0 0 0 0 2

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Scheuing (W,2-0) 5 2/3 5 4 4 2 3

McKeller 2 1/3 1 0 0 1 1

Odom 1 0 0 0 0 2

HBP?Sienko by Guzman, King by Neiser; T?2:50; ATT?1,500 (est.)