BANGOR – For the second time in as many seasons, Tony Harden came within three outs of a no-hitter against Bangor.

The New Haven County righthander kept the Bangor Lumberjacks out of the hits column for eight full innings before Mike Grasso broke the spell with a liner down the first base line in the ninth.

That was it for the Lumberjacks, however, as Harden led the Cutters to a 4-0 victory in Friday night’s home series opener at Winkin Complex, which was beset by a power outage that caused a 43-minute delay in the game’s start.

Once power was restored, Harden created a power outage at the plate for Bangor.

“After about the first hitter, I was putting my fastball where I wanted on both sides of the plate, moving it up and down, and if I can do that, I’m doing great,” said Harden, who retired the first eight batters he faced. “I was going in and out with it, and going right after them.”

Harden didn’t throw a single curveball.

“It was just two-seamers, fastballs and changeups,” he said.

Harden (2-1) threw 79 of his 20 pitches for strikes and jumped ahead 0-1 on 18 of the 30 batters he faced en route to an outing featuring 11 strikeouts and just two walks.

“He pitched us the exact same way last year. He just dominated with one pitch,” said Bangor manager Kash Beauchamp. “You’ve got to take your hat off to him, boy. He hit his spots and got ahead of every hitter.”

Bangor is 10-12 and fourth in the Northeast League’s North Division while South-leading New Haven is 13-9.

Bangor starter Lance Calmus (1-2) went the distance, allowing seven hits while striking out seven hitters and walking two.

New Haven struck first with two runs in the third inning. No. 9 hitter Jose Mateo reached on a lazy grounder up the left side that third baseman Paul Powell fielded, but threw wildly to first on the run. Three straight singles by Tyrone Pendergrass, Gavin Fingleson, and Jimmy Hurst followed. Both runs scored on Hurst’s single to right.

The Cutters added another run in the fifth on Hurst’s homer to left center.

The final run came in the eighth. Hector Lebron hit a one-out single to left, moved to second on a wild pitch and third on a groundout before scoring on Ryan Kane’s single to left.

GAME NOTES – The delay in the start of the game was caused by a faulty circuit breaker which was tripped and needed to be reset before power could be restored. The delay was further lengthened when the circuit breaker couldn’t be found (it was in the basement.)

According to Lumberjacks general manager Curt Jacey and Husson College officials, there is too much amperage on one power board for all the stadium needs (concessions, scoreboard, public address, lights, etc.).

CUTTERS 4, LUMBERJACKS 0

(Friday Night)

NH County (13-9) Bangor (10-12)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Pendergrass, lf/cf 5 1 1 0 Uchino, ss 4 0

Fingleson, 2b 4 0 1 0 Hargreaves, c 4 0

Hurst, dh 3 1 2 3 Whitesides, cf 3 0 0

Lebron, 1b 3 1 1 0 Burke, 1b 3 0 0

Rich, rf 4 0 0 0 Hammond, lf 3 0 0

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

Forbes cf/lf 4 0 1 0 Garcia, rf 3 0 0

Hiter, c 4 0 0 0 Fowell, 3b 2 0 0

Mateo, ss 4 1 0 0 Grasso, 2b 3 0 0

Totals 35 4 7 4 Totals 28 0 1 0

NH County 002 010 010 ? 4

Bangor 000 000 000 ? 0

E? Powell; LOB? Cutters 6, Lumberjacks 3; HR? Hurst (3)

NH County IP H R ER BB SO

Harden (W, 2-1) 9 1 0 0 2 12

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Calmus (L, 1-2) 9 7 4 3 2 8

T? 2:27; ATT? 1,829