Broncs net big victory over Rams Moran lifts Hampden

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BANGOR – Pat Moran has earned a baseball scholarship to the University of Maine because of his pitching ability.

But his bat’s not bad, either.

The Hampden Academy senior right-hander scattered six hits over six innings on the mound Wednesday, and added two doubles, a single and five RBIs at the plate to lead the Broncos to a 10-3 victory over Bangor at the Winkin Complex.

“I wanted to make sure we came out and won this game,” Moran said. “Bangor’s a rival, plus they were ahead of us in the Heal Points, and I just felt like winning this game would be a pretty big statement for us.”

Hampden also got a big day from junior catcher Ian Lee, who had two doubles, a single, three RBIs and three runs scored. Like Moran, Lee had three RBIs in the first two innings as coach David Shapiro’s Broncos built a 7-1 lead.

“Pat’s a good pitcher, and all he needs is a couple of runs,” Lee said, “so it was good to get some runs early and then keep it going the whole game.”

This win was important for Hampden for at least a couple of reasons: The Broncos (8-5) won two of the three regular-season meetings against the Rams, and they better positioned themselves for a chance to host an Eastern Maine Class A preliminary-round playoff game in early June.

Bangor, also 8-5, began the day ranked ninth in the division, while Hampden was 10th. The top three teams in Eastern A earn preliminary-round byes, while seeds four through eight will host first-round games.

“We’d had some tough losses lately, and we knew this was a big game,” Lee said. “This game and pretty much all the ones we have left are big, so we’re just trying to win out so we can host.”

Hampden took control early, scoring four runs in the first inning and three more in the second.

Lee hit a two-run double to right-center to spark the first-inning rally, and he scored on Moran’s double to left-center. Moran later scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Hitchings.

Bangor got a run back in the top of the second, as Scott Hackett reached on an error and later scored on Jason Eremita’s sacrifice fly.

But Lee singled home a run in the bottom of the inning, and Moran followed with an opposite-field single to right that plated two more runs.

The rest was left to Moran’s arm, and he finished with 10 strikeouts and four walks while allowing one earned run in a 102-pitch effort before giving way to reliever Billy Shannon in the seventh.

“[Pat] didn’t have his best stuff, but that’s why he’s going to Maine, because he can go out there and compete any day,” Lee said.

Bangor had some early chances to get through against Moran, but left the bases loaded in both the second and third innings.

“It was kind of hard to adjust to the mound, because it was quite a lot higher than a lot of the mounds I’ve pitched on this year,” Moran said. “My location was pretty good, and I think I felt like I got a little stronger as the game went on.”

Scott Hackett paced Bangor with a pair of doubles, while Ben Estabrook singled twice and Brian Hackett tripled.

BRONCOS 10, RAMS 3

Bangor (8-5) Hampden Acad. (8-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Heath, ss 3 0 0 0 Meehan, ss 2 2 0

Estabrook, 2b 3 1 2 0 Shannon, 2b-p 1 0

B. Hackett, 3b 2 0 1 1 Morris, 2b 1 0

Anderson, p 2 0 0 0 Lee, c 3 3 3 3

Murphy, p 1 0 0 0 Moran, p 4 1 5

Cox, p 0 0 0 0 Brooks, 3b 3 0 0

Sturgeon, p 0 0 0 0 Yamartino, rf 0 0 0

Twomey, p 1 0 0 0 Hitchings, 1b 4 0 1

S. Hackett, 1b 4 2 2 0 Brown, cf-2b 3 0

Webb, c 3 0 1 0 MacLean rf-cf 2 1 0

Kearns, ph 1 0 0 0 Neill, lf 2 1 0

Ingraham, dh 3 0 0 0

Crews, rf 0 0 0 0

Aa. Gallant lf 3 0 1 0

Eremita, cf 3 0 0 1

Totals 29 3 7 2 Totals 25 10 7 9

Bangor 010 100 1 – 3

Hampden Acad. 430 201 x – 10

E-Estabrook, Heath; Meehan 2, Hitchings; LOB-Bangor 12, Hampden 6; 2B-S. Hackett 2; Moran 2, Lee; 3B-B. Hackett; Lee; S-B. Hackett; Neill, Meehan; SF-Eremita; Hitchings; SB-Meehan 2, Neill

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Anderson (L, 2-1) 2 5 7 5 2 1

Murphy 1 1/3 0 2 1 2 0

Cox 2/3 0 0 0 1 0

Sturgeon 1 0 0 0 1 1

Twomey 1 2 1 1 1 3

Hampden Acad. IP H R ER BB SO

Moran (W, 3-0) 6 6 2 1 4 10

Shannon 1 1 1 0 1 1

WP-Cox; PB-Lee; T-2:00; ATT-95