Jackals strike early, pound Lumberjacks Bangor’s Andrews gives up six runs

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BANGOR – How bad a night was it for Bangor Wednesday? It wasn’t until 25 minutes after the first pitch that team mascot Jack Timber was finally able to make his traditional ride onto the infield and be introduced to the fans.

It took that long for the Lumberjacks to get the New Jersey Jackals out in the top of the first.

A six-run first inning in which Bangor pitchers threw 40 pitches and faced 11 batters put the Lumberjacks in a deep hole they couldn’t dig out of as the Jackals went on to a 12-3 victory in the rubber game of the three-game series on a cool, clammy night at Winkin Complex.

The 14-8 Jackals finished the game as strongly as they started with five more runs on four hits in the ninth.

“It wasn’t any one thing tonight. If you take away the first inning, the last inning doesn’t happen because we’re not going with our relievers as long,” said Bangor manager Kash Beauchamp. “The last two nights have been tough nights to hit and it kind of all goes back to Clayton just not having it tonight.”

Starter Clayton Andrews lasted through 10 batters, but was lifted after leadoff man Zack Smithlin singled for the second time in the inning.

“He’s done well, but we just happened to get him today,” said Jackals left fielder Scott Goodman. “After the first, the righties came in and held us down nicely. We had a lot of goose eggs in the middle innings.”

Eleven of New Jersey’s 12 runs came in the first and ninth innings as John Uhl and John Rohlfing threw seven solid innings of long relief.

Smithlin and Conway singed to lead the game off, Kevin Grijak scored them both with a double to left center. After Kazuhiro Kohno’s misplayed fly ball put runners at second and third, Wady Almonte doubled both runners home. A strikeout later, Almonte scored on Goodman’s single to right center and – a walk and out later – Goodman scored on Smithlin’s second single.

Bangor, now 14-9, cut into the lead with a run in the second on Rolando Bello’s leadoff double, a steal of second, and Paul Powell’s single to left center. Two more runs came across in the fifth with two outs as Jose Garcia walked, Brad Hargreaves was hit by a pitch, Kohno hit an RBI single to right center, and then Kohno and Hargreaves executed a successful delayed double steal with Kohno evading the tag at second and Hargreaves scoring.

In the meantime, New Jersey scored a run in the fourth on a Smithlin leadoff single, a steal of second, and Wilton Veras’ RBI single up the middle after a double play.

The biggest swing of the game came in the ninth when Goodman belted a 1-1 slider from Ben Fox to right for a 360-foot grand slam.

“I think he just kind of sped my bat up and I got lucky because I wasn’t looking slider,” said Goodman. “Until that point, he had my number with a couple of strikeouts.”

JACKALS 12, LUMBERJACKS 3

New Jersey (14-8) Bangor (14-9)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Smithlin, cf 6 2 4 1 Garcia, rf 3 1 0

Conway, dh 4 1 1 0 Carminucci, ph 1 0 0

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

Veras, 3b 5 2 2 1 Martinez, c 1 0 0

Almonte, rf 5 2 2 3 Kohno, cf 5 0 1

Rowan, ss 4 1 0 0 Hammond, lf 4 0 0

Goodman, lf 5 2 2 5 Bello, 2b 4 1 0

LaFlair, c 5 0 2 0 Kane, 3b 2 0 0

Infante, 2b 3 0 0 0 Burke, 1b 4 0 0

Powell, ss 3 0 2 1

Uchino, dh 3 0 0 0

Totals 42 12 14 12 Totals 33 3 7 2

New Jersey 600 100 005 ? 12

Bangor 010 020 000 ? 3

E?Kohno, Powell; LOB?New Jersey 7, Lumberjacks 10; 2B?Grijak, Almonte; Bello; HR?Goodman (3); DP?Bangor 1; SB?Smithlin 2; Hargreaves, Kohno, Bello

New Jersey IP H R ER BB SO

Miller (W,6-3) 6 5 3 3 4 2

Neiser 1 2/3 1 0 0 2 0

Breslow 1/3 0 0 0 0 1

Wieben 1 1 0 0 0 0

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Andrews (L,6-3) 2/3 6 6 4 1 1

Uhl 5 4 1 1 1 3

Rohlfing 2 2/3 3 5 4 0 3

Fox 2/3 1 0 0 0 0

HBP?Infante by Rohlfing, Rowan by Rohlfing, Hargreaves by Miller; PB?Hargreaves; T?3:15; ATT?801