BANGOR – The reigning Northeast League pitcher of the week looked like he was ready to abdicate his title early in Wednesday night’s game at Winkin Complex, but after correcting a flaw in his delivery, he looked like a good bet to repeat.

Bangor’s Adam Thomas gave up seven hits in the first four innings, but after consulting with pitching coach Kevin Pincavitch, he yielded one the rest of the way in a complete-game effort and a 3-2 Lumberjacks victory over the New Haven County Cutters.

“I was leaving the ball up too much. Once I fixed that, I was fine,” said Thomas, who was equally effective with his fastball, changeup, and curve.

Thomas (6-3) allowed eight hits and two walks while notching seven strikeouts – five in the final four innings, all of which were hitless, for his second complete-game victory.

“He wasn’t throwing it in on as much of an angle as we like to see him and the reason was because his head was standing straight up,” said Pincavitch. “After he made the adjustment, everything was down the hill and it was easy sailing.”

Thomas’ performance in the later innings convinced manager Kash Beauchamp to leave him in for the ninth, even though closer Lance Calmus was warming up.

“We were thinking Calmus, but then we figured why not let him have it?” said Pincavitch. “I talked to Calmus and he said ‘It doesn’t happen too often, so let him do it and enjoy it’ and that’s a great thing to hear.”

The Lumberjacks’ fourth straight win and 11th in the last 13 games leave them 8-2 in the second half, just a half-game back of North Shore in the North Division. New Haven fell to 2-8.

The Lumberjacks took the 3-2 lead in the seventh after Rolando Bello reached on a fielder’s choice and then stole second. Jose Garcia scored him with a single to shallow center field on a 3-0 pitch that he convinced Beauchamp to give him the green light to swing on.

“I gave [third base coach Chris Carminucci] the take sign and then Jose looked at me like he wanted to hit and I said ‘All right, go ahead,’ and I gave him the green light, and he delivered,” Beauchamp said.

New Haven had built a 2-0 lead with a run in the second on a leadoff single by Kevin Forbes and a two-out RBI single to left by Ryan Kane, and one-out single by Hector LeBron and two-out RBI single by Forbes in the third.

Bangor chipped away and halved its deficit on Donnie Ross’ solo home run to center off a 3-1 changeup with one out in the fourth. The Lumberjacks tied the game in the sixth as Ross, Mark Burke, and Kazuhiro Kohno hit three straight one-out singles.

“These 3-2 games are the ones you have to win because you’re going to see a lot more of these down the stretch than those 12-4 blowouts,” said Ross, who is three homers behind teammate Derry Hammond. Hammond leads the NEL with 17 home runs despite sitting out some games with a bruised hand.

“He was working on his hand, so I couldn’t tell him I was making a run at him. I want to get as close as I can,” Ross added.

LUMBERJACKS 3, CUTTERS 2

(Wednesday Night)

New Haven (2-8) Bangor (8-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Johnston, 2b 4 0 1 0 Garcia, rf 4 0 1

Mateo, ss 4 0 0 0 Hargreaves, c 4 0 0

Lebron, 1b 3 1 2 0 Ross, dh 4 2 1

Ciraco, rf 4 0 0 0 Burke, 1b 4 0 0

Forbes, lf 4 1 2 1 Kohno, cf 4 0 1

Fera, dh 4 0 1 0 Uchino, ss 3 0 0

Shorsher, c 4 0 0 0 Martinez, lf 2 0 0

Rich, cf 3 0 1 0 Powell, 3b 2 0 0

Kane, 3b 4 0 1 1 Bello, 2b 2 1 0

Totals 34 2 8 2 Totals 29 3 6 3

New Haven 011 000 000 ? 2

Bangor 000 101 10x ? 3

LOB?New Haven 7, Bangor 6; 2B?Johnston; HR?Ross (14); DP?Bangor 1; SB?Forbes; Bello

New Haven IP H R ER BB SO

Bonesio 6 5 2 2 1 2

McCarthy (L, 0-3) 2 1 1 1 1 3

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Thomas (W, 6-3) 9 8 2 2 2 7

HBP?Uchino by Bonesio, Martinez by Bonesio; T?2:28; ATT?1,009