BANGOR – Top-seeded Bangor blended power and perseverance to win the American Legion Zone 1 baseball tournament championship at Mansfield Stadium on Saturday.

Power came from catcher P.J. Dowe, whose leadoff home run in the bottom of the eighth inning ignited a five-run rally that lifted the Comrades to a 10-5 victory over Brewer in the decisive winners’ bracket game.

Perseverance was the forte of righthander Keith Nason, who regrouped after some middle-inning struggles to pitch a complete-game nine-hitter that sends coach Jay Kemble’s club to this week’s AL state tournament as the zone’s top seed.

Bangor earned that status a day early after the tournament schedule was altered when it became clear that a team coming out of the losers’ bracket would have to win three games on Sunday in order to win the zone title. A team is not allowed to play three games in one day according to Legion rules, said Zone 1 commissioner Dave Paul.

Extending the tournament to Monday also was not an option because the state tournament begins Wednesday in Augusta, so it was decided the last unbeaten team in the tournament would be the zone champion and the last surviving team in the consolation bracket would earn the second state tournament berth.

Penquis defeated Brewer 12-7 Sunday night to secure that second berth.

Brewer seemingly had a decent grasp on the first Zone 1 berth after scoring three runs in the fifth and two runs in the sixth to erase an early 4-0 Bangor lead.

Righthander Andrew Patterson had shut down Bangor’s offense since the second, while Falcons center fielder Jeff Miller made like Jim Edmonds, making four diving catches to rob the Comrades of hits and further rallies.

“He was unreal,” said Dowe. “I thought we had five or six hits out there, and he was right there and just dived, and dived, and dived, and dived, and came up with the ball every time. It was unbelievable, the best center field play I’ve ever seen.”

But Bangor tied the game in the seventh, as Nate Hall hit a leadoff single, went to second on a single by Phil Cayford and scored on a two-out single by Alex Means, his fourth hit of the game.

Dowe put the Comrades ahead an inning later, getting the best of a nine-pitch battle with Patterson by pulling the tournament’s first home run over the fence in left field.

“It was right down the middle,” said Dowe. “I had swung at a couple of bad ones before and that just looked perfect when it came in, because I had been swinging at ones above my head at first. It looked great as soon as it came in.”

“P.J. had a great at-bat,” added Kemble. “He actually fouled off one or two pitches that were out of the strike zone that would have given him ball four, but then he came back and fought off a couple of tough pitches and finally got a good pitch and hit it pretty well.”

Bangor fed off that instant momentum, scoring four more runs in the inning. Two came on Cayford’s bases-loaded 375-foot single off the left-field fence, a high blast the Bangor baserunners had to wait on to see if it would be caught. Josh Young followed with a two-run double to right to give the Comrades their five-run cushion.

“We talked in the dugout about staying focused, and not to get our heads down,” Cayford said. “We knew we could jump back on [Patterson] like we did.”

Nason, meanwhile, allowed just two baserunners over the last three innings, with neither advancing to scoring position.

“When we scored in the seventh it really gave me a lot of confidence, and then getting quick outs in the eighth helped,” Nason said. “Then in the bottom of the eighth, we started hitting the ball and coming alive.”

Control was crucial to Nason’s success, as he walked just two batters while striking out five.

“The thing about Keith is he’s always in the strike zone, so you’re not worried about him piling up pitches, you’re not concerned about a ton of walks,” said Kemble. “He got his ball up a little bit in those middle innings, especially the breaking pitch, and they came up with some hits, but the big thing about it is he regrouped, he made some big pitches and we made some good plays defensively behind him.”

COMRADES 10, FALCONS 5

(Saturday Afternoon, 9 innings)

Brewer (21-5) Bangor (23-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Miller, cf 5 0 1 1 N. Larochelle, 2b 4 0

Patterson, p-1b 5 0 1 0 Hall, rf 4 0

Moran, 1b-lf 4 1 1 0 Hackett, 3b 3 1 1

Robicheau, c 4 1 2 1 Cayford, dh 4 1 2

Otis, lf 1 1 0 0 Young, 1b 5 0 2

B. Davis, lf 2 0 1 0 Means, ss 5 1 1

Maguire, p 0 0 0 0 M. Larochelle, lf 4 0

Bouzn-Kalustn,2b 4 1 2 0 Dowe, c 4 2 2

Gifford, rf 1 0 0 0 Eremita, cf 4 0 0

Grimes, rf 3 0 0 0

Kotredes, 3b 3 1 0 1

JT Davis, ss 4 0 1 1

Totals 36 5 9 4 Totals 37 10 12 8

Brewer 000 032 000 ? 5

Bangor 130 000 15x ? 10

E?Bouzan-Kaloustian, Kotredes; Young, M. Larochelle; LOB?Brewer 6; Bangor 9; 2B?Robicheau; Young; 3B?Hall; HR?Dowe; DP?Bangor 1; S?N. Larochelle; SB?J.T. Davis; Means

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Patterson (L,5-2) 7 1/3 12 10 10 4 5

Maguire 2/3 0 0 0 0 0

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Nason (W,4-2) 9 9 5 4 2 5

HBP?Hall by Patterson; WP?Nason; BK?Patterson; T?2:16; ATT?170 (est.)