‘Jacks top Elmira for team-record 6th straight win

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BANGOR – The beat – more specifically the winning streak – goes on for the Bangor Lumberjacks.

The Lumberjacks won their franchise-record sixth straight game with a 7-3 victory over cellar-dwelling Elmira on a hot, sunny Tuesday afternoon at Winkin Baseball Complex before a crowd of 3,000 fans.

The 8-5 ‘Jacks continued to get good hitting up and down their lineup and solid starting pitching, but now they’re throwing effective relief pitching into the mix as all facets of the game are coming together.

“I think the bullpen is stronger than anyone thought it was going to be at the beginning of the year,” said Bangor designated hitter Ryan Sienko, one of Tuesday’s hitting stars.

Sienko and the rest of his teammates chalk their success up to team chemistry.

“The thing with this team, compared to last year, is when a guy gets a hit, we’re all ‘Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah,'” said Bangor pitching coach Kevin Pincavitch. “Last year some guys were ‘Ah’ and others didn’t say anything. Some either didn’t care or didn’t know. These guys are phenomenal right now.”

Bangor backed another sterling outing by starter Matt Scheuing, who notched the fourth straight quality start (six innings or more with three or less earned runs) and fifth in the last six games by the ‘Jacks.

Scheuing improved to 3-0 after limiting the 1-11 Pioneers to two hits in six innings while striking out three and walking none.

Newly-signed reliever John Boker teamed with J.C. Huguet to pitch three innings of hitless, shutout ball.

The ‘Jacks jumped on the scoreboard early courtesy of a Wille King solo home run. His 345-foot shot over the wall in right followed a Sienko single, but Sienko was thrown out trying to stretch his wall-ball to left-center into a double.

Bangor added three more in the fourth. Jake Whitesides hit a one-out single to shallow left-center, stole second and scored an out later on Sienko’s double to left-center. Sienko scored on King’s single up the middle and King, after stealing second, scored on Paul Powell’s single to left on an 0-2 pitch.

Elmira ended its scoring drought with three unearned runs in what should have been a 1-2-3 seventh thanks to three Lumberjacks errors. The only hit of the half-inning was Yuri Nerei’s two-run single up the middle. The other run was scored after Dytarious Edwards reached third on a three-base error to lead off the inning and scored on King’s dropped fly ball in left.

Bangor struck for three more runs in the eighth on four straight one-out hits – the second of which was a two-run single by Sienko and the third of which was a double by Derry Hammond. Brad Hargreaves capped the scoring with a groundout that scored Sienko.

LUMBERJACKS 7, PIONEERS 3

Elmira (1-11) Bangor (8-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Davidson, ss 4 0 0 0 Grasso, 2b 3 0 0

Edwards, 2b 4 1 1 0 Garcia, rf 3 0 0

Dodson, rf 4 1 0 0 Whitesides, cf 4 2 0

Checksfield, lf 4 1 0 0 Ross, 1b 4 0

Nerei, dh 3 0 1 2 Sienko, dh 4 2 3

Bryan, cf 4 0 0 0 King, lf 3 2 2

Mezmert, 1b 3 0 0 0 Hammond, lf 1 0 0

Morita, 3b 3 0 0 0 Powell, 3b 3 0 1

Smith, c 3 0 0 0 Hargreaves, c 4 0 1

Uchino, ss 4 0 0 0

Totals 32 3 2 2 Totals 33 7 11 7

Elmira 000 000 300 ? 3

Bangor 010 300 03x ? 7

E?Morita; King, Powell, Scheuing; LOB?Elmira 3, Bangor 5; 2B?Sienko, Hammond; HR?King; S?Garcia; SB?Checksfield; Whitesides 2, Ross, King

Elmira IP H R ER BB SO

Zallie (L, 0-1) 3 2/3 6 4 4 1 3

Elfeldt 2 1/3 0 0 0 0 5

Borland 2 5 3 3 0 1

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Scheuing (W, 3-0) 6 2 3 0 0 3

Boker 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 0

Parker 0 0 0 0 0 0

Huguet (S, 1) 1 2/3 0 0 0 0 2

WP?Zallie; T?2:33; ATT?3,033