BANGOR – The North Shore Spirit scored six runs in the ninth Saturday and Sunday to take three out of four against the Bangor Lumberjacks and clinch the Northeast League’s North Division first-half title.

North Shore got key hits up and down the lineup all weekend to post a 6-4 win Saturday night and a 10-6 victory Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve been gaining momentum and getting that confidence to come back,” said catcher Frank Charles, who led the Spirit’s 13-hit attack Sunday with three singles and an RBI. “Everybody’s been contributing. We’ve been doing it right along.”

The 31-12 Spirit got things rolling with runners at first and second with one out in the ninth. Joe Hastings hit an RBI double to the right-field corner, and a walk of Onix Mercado by reliever J.C. Huguet loaded the bases for pinch hitter Michael Granger, who laced a liner down the left-field line for a two-run double. Brian Macchi’s sacrifice fly scored Mercado.

For the second time in the last four games, the Spirit took advantage of Bangor’s mental miscues, both on the basepaths and in the field.

“Generally we’ve been staying away from mistakes and the biggest thing is when other teams make mistakes, we usually capitalize,” Charles said.

The Spirit scored twice in the eighth with two singles and a whole lot of help from Bangor. With runners at the corners and one out, Travis Oglesby flared a fly ball to right. Hastings tagged up at third and bluffed a run home. The throw came in to catcher Brad Hargreaves as pinch-runner Lucas Taylor took off from first. Hargreaves had him caught too far off first and a rundown ensued, but home plate was left uncovered and Hastings scored.

To make matters worse, Taylor escaped the jam and reached second safely. Taylor then scored when shortstop Shin Uchino, who entered the game in the seventh as a defensive replacement, scooped up a grounder and threw wide to first for a two-base error.

“There were mental mistakes all over the field. They cost us the game today,” said Bangor manager Kash Beauchamp, who held a loud, closed-door postgame locker room meeting to air out his frustration with the team. “It’s going to cost guys playing time if they can’t execute fundamentally.

“This game could have been a turning-point game for us and we [threw] it away. It’s brutal. I’ll start embarrassing guys. They’re embarrassing me… I’ll pull them out in the middle of an inning if I have to.”

North Shore scored two runs in the second as Rob Fischer led off with a single, Hastings followed with a walk, Charles hit an RBI single and – one strikeout later – Macchi hit an RBI single to shallow left center.

The Spirit added two in the third via a one-out Vic Davila single and a Fischer home run.

Bangor finally answered in a big way with six runs in the seventh on five hits, the biggest of which was Brad Hargreaves’ game-tying three-run homer to left on a first-pitch fastball from newly inserted reliever Gary Bell. A flyout later, Mark Burke hit his second double of the game and then scored on Derry Hammond’s blast to left center.

Saturday, the Spirit blew a 4-0 lead only to scrape three hits together in the top of the ninth to slip past the Lumberjacks.

Mercado led off with a single through the left-side hole, then pinch runner Taylor moved to second on a bunt, and went to third on a groundout. Marcos Agramonte scored Taylor with a slow-rolling grounder to the right side that eluded pitcher John Rohlfing just enough that Rohlfing’s throw to first was a split-second to late. Agramonte then moved to second on a passed ball and scored on Nelson Teilon’s single to left.

North Shore’s first four runs came via the long ball as Hastings hit a solo shot to left in the second and No. 9 hitter Yuri Sanchez – who has bedeviled Bangor pitchers the last two seasons – cranked a three-run shot to dead center with two outs in the fifth.

Bangor scored twice in both the fifth and sixth. In the fifth, Jose Garcia drew a leadoff walk, went to second on Kazuhiro Kohno’s single, third on a passed ball, and home on Rolando Bello’s sacrifice fly. Kohno scored on Jake Whitesides’ one-out double to the right field corner.

In the sixth, Hammond singled, went to second on a fielding error, and scored on Jose Garcia’s single to right. A walk to Kohno and flyout later, an Uchino sacrifice fly scored Burke, who reached on the error.

SPIRIT 10, LUMBERJACKS 6

(Sunday Afternoon)

North Shore (31-12) Bangor (22-21)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Agramonte, 2b 6 0 0 0 Whitesides, cf 5 1

Teilon, 3b 5 0 1 0 Hargreaves, c 4 1 3

Davila, 1b 4 2 1 0 Ross, 3b-1b 5 0 0

Fischer, cf 5 3 2 2 Burke, 1b 4 1 0

Hastings, lf 4 3 2 1 Uchino, ss 0 0 0

Charles, c 4 0 3 1 Hammond, dh 5 1 2

Taylor, pr 0 1 0 0 Kohno, lf 4 0 0

Mercado, c 0 1 0 0 Garcia, rf 4 0 0

Oglesby, dh 4 0 1 0 Bello, 2b 4 1 0

Granger, ph 1 0 1 2 Powell, ss-3b 3 1 0

Macchi, rf 4 0 2 2

Sanchez, ss 3 0 0 0

Totals 40 10 13 8 Totals 38 6 12 6

North Shore 022 000 024 ? 10

Bangor 000 000 600 ? 6

E?Teilon; Uchino; LOB?North Shore 9; Lumberjacks 8; 2B?Hastings, Granger; Burke 2; HR?Fischer (4); Hargreaves (1), Hammond (13); DP?North Shore 1; SF?Macchi; SB?Fischer; Bello

North Shore IP H R ER BB SO

Sugarman 6 9 3 3 0 3

Bell (W,2-1) 2 3 3 3 0 2

Bicondoa (S,13) 1 0 0 0 0 0

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Calmus 7 8 4 4 1 6

McKeller 1/3 2 2 1 0 0

Huguet (L,1-2) 1 2/3 3 4 4 4 0

HBP?Hargreaves by Sugarman, Powell by Sugarman, Uchino by Bicandoa; T?3:01; ATT?829

SPIRIT 6, LUMBERJACKS 4

(Saturday Night)

North Shore (30-12) Bangor (22-20)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Agramonte, 2b 4 1 1 1 Whitesides, cf 5 1

Teilon, 3b 5 0 2 1 Hargreaves, c 5 0 0

Davila, 1b 4 0 0 0 Ross, 3b 4 0 0

Fischer, cf 4 0 0 0 Hammond, dh 5 1 0

Hastings, lf 3 1 2 1 Burke, 1b 4 1 0

Oglesby, dh 4 1 1 0 Garcia, rf 2 1 1

Mercado, c 4 0 1 0 Kohno, lf 3 1 0

Taylor, c 0 1 0 0 Bello, 2b 3 0 1

Macchi, rf 3 1 1 0 Uchino, ss 2 0 1

Sanchez, ss 4 1 2 3

Totals 35 6 10 6 Totals 33 4 7 4

North Shore 010 030 002 ? 6

Bangor 000 022 000 ? 4

E?Teilon, Davila; Burke; LOB?North Shore 6; Bangor 9; 2B?Teilon; Whitesides; HR?Hastings (4), Sanchez (1); DP?Bangor 2; S?Macchi; SF?Bello, Uchino; SB?Sanchez

North Shore IP H R ER BB SO

Dean 5 6 4 2 2 6

Bell (W,2-1) 3 1 0 0 0 4

Bicondoa (S,12) 1 0 0 0 1 2

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Thomas 7 7 4 4 2 3

Rohlfing (L,1-2) 2 3 2 1 1 3

HBP?Garcia by Bell ; WP?Rohlfing; PB?Mercado; Hargreaves; T?2:48; ATT?2,526