BANGOR – One of the more popular promotions run by the Bangor Lumberjacks is the tennis ball toss in the seventh inning. On Thursday night, the visiting North Shore Spirit staged an impromptu coaching toss in the sixth.

On a wild night at Winkin Complex, the Lumberjacks spotted North Shore a 3-0 lead and then scored 11 unanswered runs for an 11-3 victory.

Bangor, now 29-13 and one game behind Northeast League North Division leader Quebec, rang up 12 hits – six coming from the top third of the order – on the 25-16 Spirit in a game in which three North Shore coaches were ejected for “spirited” discourse with the umpires.

“I’ve seen some things that I haven’t seen before in my baseball career,” said Mark Burke. “We just wanted to stay out of the mess and let them go at it.”

North Shore manager John Kennedy was ejected by home plate umpire Rich Katz for arguing ball and strike calls from the dugout with no outs in the bottom of the sixth. Assistant coach Tom Donahue was also ejected from the bench in the ensuing argument, which escalated to the point at which Kennedy kicked dirt on Katz, Katz kicked dirt back on Kennedy, and it went back and forth. Kennedy even kicked dirt on first base umpire Jamie Guerriero, who ejected pitching coach Dick Radatz Wednesday night, as Guerriero came walking down the first base line.

Radatz was then ejected a second straight night, this time by third base umpire Bill Patterson about 10 minutes later as North Shore players complained to Katz about cleaning off home plate, which had been totally covered with dirt by Kennedy. Katz refused to clean off the plate, but after first baseman Vic Davilla began to swipe at the plate with his foot, he eventually relented and scraped the plate clean with his shoe.

Kennedy would not comment on the nature of the arguments, but did acknowledge it was the latest of several times his coaches have had problems with Katz’s crew.

Katz, Guerriero and Patterson had already left shortly after the game ended and were unavailable for comment.

Right fielder Jose Garcia continued to look more and more comfortable as the leadoff batter as he led Bangor’s charge by going 3-for-5 with two runs scored and a stolen base.

“We all feel a lot more patient at the plate and I told Kash [Beauchamp] if he wanted me to lead off, I’d be glad to do it and it’s been working for me,” Garcia said.

He also made a stellar lunging catch against the wall in the seventh to rob Mike Granger of a double.

North Shore took a 3-0 lead in the third inning courtesy of a three-run homer to right – a 350-foot shot with two outs – by Joe Hastings.

Bangor answered in the bottom of the inning. Back-to-back, one-out singles by Shin Uchino and Garcia preceded a strikeout. A walk to Kazuhiro Kohno loaded the bases and another to Derry Hammond on a full count forced Uchino. A passed ball scored Garcia and moved everyone else up before Burke scored two more runs with a double off the wall in left center.

The Lumberjacks added four more in the fifth. Singles by Brad Hargreaves and Kohno, and a Hammond walk loaded the bases. Burke walked to score Hargreaves and Josh Tranum broke the game with a three-run double.

“Those walks were big for us,” said Beauchamp, whose team leads the NEL in walks. “Walks have been big for us all year because what happens is a couple walks like the ones we had for RBIs is they get defenses back on their heels.”

Bangor tacked on three more runs to make it 11-3 in the eighth on a two-run single to left by Hargreaves and a two-out RBI double by pinch-hitter Brian Baker.

LUMBERJACKS 11, SPIRIT 3

North Shore (25-17) Bangor (29-13)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Agramonte, 2b 4 0 0 0 Garcia, rf 5 0

Teilon, 3b 1 0 0 0 Hargreaves, c 4 1 2

Granger, 3b-2b 4 0 1 0 Kohno, cf 4 0

Davilla, 1b 4 1 2 0 Hammond, lf 3 2 1

Fischer, cf 4 1 1 0 Baker, lf 1 0 1

Hastings, lf 3 1 1 3 Burke, dh 4 1 3

Oglesby, dh 4 0 2 0 Tranum, 1b 4 0 3

Macchi, rf 3 0 2 0 Davis, 3b 4 0 0

Mercado, c 4 0 0 0 Bello, 2b 4 1 0

Sanchez, ss 4 0 0 0 Uchino, ss 3 2 0

Totals 35 3 9 3 Totals 35 11 12 10

North Shore 003 000 000 ? 3

Bangor 004 040 03x ? 11

E?Teilon; LOB?North Shore 7, Bangor 6; 2B?Hammond, Baker, Burke, Tranum; HR?Hastings (11); DP?North Shore 1, Bangor 1; S?Hargreaves; SB?Garcia

North Shore IP H R ER BB SO

Reynoso (L,1-2) 4 1/3 6 8 8 4 4

Jones 2 2/3 2 0 0 0 2

Dixon 1 4 3 3 1 2

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Scheuing (W,11-4) 5 1/3 9 3 3 0 3

Uhl 2 2/3 0 0 0 2 4

Boker 1 0 0 0 0 1

WP?Reynoso; Uhl; PB?Mercado; Hargreaves; T?3:08; ATT?800 (est.)