BANGOR – A 20-2 regular-season record suggests the Brewer American Legion baseball team has been strong throughout the summer of 2005.

But their dominant performance in rolling through four Zone 1 tournament games undefeated suggests the best may be yet to come.

“I think we have a great deal of younger talent and older talent, and with that mixture we should do well at the states,” said Brewer center fielder Jeff Miller after No. 1 Brewer defeated No. 2 Bangor 5-1 at Mansfield Stadium on Monday to win the zone tournament championship.

“Our zone probably has a lot of the tougher pitchers around, but we hit well and hopefully we can go to the states and keep the bats going and get our pitchers some runs.”

The Falcons pounded out 16 hits in support of righthander Evan Economy, who allowed one earned runs on eight hits over 8 1/3 innings.

“Evan’s had a great year right through high school,” said Brewer coach David Morris. “He’s been very consistent, and we just told him to give us what he could give us today. For him to go 8 1/3 innings totally exceeded our expectations, but I’m really not surprised because he really kept them off-balance enough to get the job done.”

Brewer also came up big defensively, turning three double plays as second baseman Andrew Otis – an outfielder during the high school season – teamed with shortstop Chris Maguire, third baseman Kevin McAvoy and first baseman Andrew Patterson to snuff out any early Bangor threats in their infancy.

“They’re a good ballclub, they’ve done things very well lately,” said Bangor coach Dr. John Winkin. “They’re on a roll. They’re hitting, and they’re hitting with men on, and hitting with two outs. They’ve been very successful in that respect. They also fielded extremely well, and we didn’t. They’re true champions of the zone.”

Both teams advance to the state tournament that begins Saturday at Mansfield Stadium, marking the first time since 2001 that the top two seeds in Zone 1 have advanced. Bangor (20-6) will face Zone 2 champion Monmouth (20-2) at 10 a.m., while Brewer (24-2) will play at 7 p.m. against Gardiner (16-8), which outlasted Knox County 10-9 in 10 innings Monday to earn the runnerup berth in Zone 2.

Brewer outscored its four Zone tournament opponents by a combined 37-9, and pounded out 28 hits in two postseason wins against Bangor.

“We focused and concentrated on hitting,” said Miller, who had a double and two singles in the final. “We knew we had the pitching to go deep in the tournament, so if we got runs to give the pitchers support we’d be all set, and that’s what we did.”

The Falcons stranded 14 runners Monday, but used clutch two-out hitting to build a 3-0 lead through five innings against Bangor starter Eric Anderson.

A two-out single to center by Otis drove home Nye Gifford in the second to give Brewer a 1-0 lead, and Chris Maguire’s two-out RBI single an inning later drove home Joe Robicheau to make it a 2-0 game. Otis then drew a two-out walk in the fifth and scored when Miller doubled to right-center.

Robicheau hit a two-run single in the eighth off reliever Kyle Leeman to extend Brewer’s lead to 5-0.

Bangor broke up the shutout bid in the ninth as Scott Hackett singled, went to third on Jason Eremita’s double to left-center, and scored on a groundout by Kyle Gallant.

“We’ll benefit from having a little time off before going into the state tournament,” said Winkin. “I think we’ll be OK because we’ve got pitching.”

FALCONS 5, COMRADES 1

Bangor (20-6) Brewer (24-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Heath, cf 4 0 2 0 Miller, cf 5 0 1

Means, 2b 5 0 1 0 Grimes, lf 5 0 0

B. Hackett, 3b 2 0 0 0 McAvoy, 3b 5 0

Young, 1b 2 0 0 0 Moran, dh 5 1 0

Webb, dh 4 0 0 0 Patterson, 1b 4 1 0

S. Hackett, c 3 1 1 0 Robicheau, c 4 2

DeRosa, rf 3 0 0 0 Gifford, rf 5 1 0

Kearns, ph 1 0 0 0 Maguire, ss 4 0 1

Eremita, lf 4 0 2 0 Otis, 2b 3 1 1

Gallant, ss 3 0 2 1

Totals 31 1 8 1 Totals 40 5 16 5

Bangor 000 000 001-1

Brewer 011 010 02x-5

E-Heath, Gallant, B. Hackett, Means; Maguire; LOB-Bangor 10, Brewer 14; 2B-Eremita; Miller; DP-Heath to Means; Otis to Maguire to Patterson, McAvoy to Otis to Patterson, Maguire to Otis to Patterson; SB-Heath; Otis 2, Gifford

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Anderson (L, 2-2) 6 14 3 3 2 2

Leeman 2 2 2 1 1 1

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Economy (W, 4-1) 8 1/3 8 1 1 5 3

Cushing 2/3 0 0 0 1 0

HBP-B. Hackett (by Economy); WP-Leeman 2; Economy; T-2:21; ATT-225