BANGOR – The strength of Bangor’s American Legion baseball team resides on the mound, a depth of righthanded talent perhaps no Zone 1 rival can match.

In Josh Young, Anthony DeRosa, Keith Nason, Brian Hackett, and Eric Anderson, the Comrades boast a veteran rotation that may be the deciding factor in the zone’s regular-season race as 10 teams seek to emerge from the 22-game, 29-day sprint with one of the six available postseason berths.

Tuesday night’s matchup at Mansfield Stadium against Presque Isle offered Nason a chance to show his stuff, and the righthander from Glenburn and Husson College responded with a three-hit shutout as Bangor edged the Patriots 2-0 to improve its record to a North Division-leading 4-1.

“He threw strikes and had a good fastball going,” said Bangor coach Dr. John Winkin of Nason, who pitched little this spring during his first collegiate season. “I thought he had a good, effective night, and he did it with a minimum number of pitches.”

Nason required only 90 pitches to turn back Presque Isle, holding the 4-2 Patriots hitless after Chris Parsons hit his second single of the night to open the top of the fourth.

“I felt real good with my fastball,” said Nason, who now has a string of 11 scoreless innings since yielding two runs in the first inning of his initial start of the summer, a 7-3 win against Waldo last Thursday.

“It seemed like it had some pop and a little movement on it, and I just worked that. Then I used my curveball for something off-speed just to mix up the hitters, and it worked out pretty well.”

The John Bapst of Bangor graduate struck out 10 batters and walked three.

“We did have six baserunners, so we had our chances,” said Presque Isle coach Leo Saucier. “We tried to hit and run a little bit, because we knew we weren’t going to be able to steal on this catcher [Gordon Webb] like we’ve been stealing.

“Sometimes you come up against a strong pitcher, and you just have to take the loss.”

Presque Isle righthander Danny Michaud shook off some early wildness to pitch a four-hitter. He struck out eight and walked six, but five of the walks came in the first three innings, and none of those runners scored.

“We left a lot of runners on, and we hit some hard balls with runners on base, but he pitched well,” said Winkin. “That was a well-pitched game.”

Brian Hackett supplied the only run Nason needed with a two-out home run to left in the bottom of the first that gave Bangor a 1-0 lead.

Jordan Heath led off the Bangor fifth with a single to center, moved to second on a one-out walk to Hackett, and scored when Anderson singled sharply to left on an 0-2 pitch to give the Comrades their two-run cushion.

COMRADES 2, PATRIOTS 0

Presque Isle (4-2) Bangor (4-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Lavway, dh 0 0 0 0 Heath, cf 2 1 0

Lyford, 2b 3 0 1 0 Eremita, lf 3 0 0

Caron, cf 3 0 0 0 B. Hackett, 3b 1 1 1

Parsons, c-1b 3 0 2 0 Gallant, pr 0 0

Brewer, rf 2 0 0 0 Anderson, dh 2 0 1

Baker, rf 1 0 0 0 S. Hackett, 1b 3 0 0

L. York, lf 3 0 0 0 Webb, c 3 0 1 0

A. York, 1b 2 0 0 0 Clifford, pr 0 0 0

Austin, c 1 0 0 0 Means, ss 1 0 0

King, ss 2 0 0 0 M. Larochelle, rf 1 0

Hill, ss 1 0 0 0 Kearns, ph 1 0 0

Richardson, 3b 2 0 0 0 N. Larochelle, 2b 0

Cleary, 3b 1 0 0 0

Totals 24 0 3 0 Totals 20 2 4 2

Presque Isle 000 000 0 – 0

Bangor 100 010 x – 2

E-Michaud; Nason, N. Larochelle; LOB-Presque Isle 6, Bangor 7; HR-B. Hackett; S-Means; SB-Clifford

Presque Isle IP H R ER BB SO

Michaud (L, 1-1) 6 4 2 2 6 8

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Nason (W, 2-0) 7 3 0 0 3 10

T-1:51; ATT-100