South nips Bangor in last inning Humphries double key

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BANGOR – Brannon Humphries hadn’t gotten the ball out of the infield in his first two at-bats Wednesday night, and barely stayed alive in his third trip to the plate – fouling off a 1-2 pitch with the slightest sliver of his aluminum bat.

The next time he struck the ball, he propelled the Habersham Little League of Clarkesville, Ga., to a berth in the Senior League World Series semifinals.

Humphries 375-foot double to center with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning drove home Jesse Holden to give the U.S. South champions a dramatic 4-3 victory over Bangor at Mansfield Stadium.

Bangor reliever Neal Russell quickly moved ahead of Humphries in the count and nearly got his third strikeout of the inning with a 1-2 curve the Georgia batter barely touched.

“He’s got a good curveball, and I just tried to foul it off and was lucky to get a piece of it,” Humphries said.

The next pitch produced a vastly different level of contact.

“It was a fastball. He hit his spot and got it inside, but I got my bat head around on it and hit it pretty good,” said Humphries.

Holden, who had drawn a leadoff walk, scored easily on the blast, which carried over the head of Bangor center fielder Tom Crews.

“I’ve never had a hit like that before,” said Humphries. “This is pretty big. This is the World Series. This is really big.”

The win clinches a semifinal berth for Clarkesville, 2-1 heading into its Pool A finale at 5 p.m. Thursday against 0-3 Thunder Bay, Ontario. Even with a loss, Clarkesville can finish no worse than tied for second in the pool with Bangor and-or Agana, Guam, and the Georgians have defeated both of those teams.

“That was our goal when we got here, to make it to the semifinals, and then anything can happen,” Clarkesville manager Randy Jackson said.

Bangor (1-2) will face 3-0 Pearl City, Hawaii, in its final game at 8 p.m. Thursday.

“You can’t ask for much more. Our kids gave it their all,” said Bangor manager Tyler Jellison.

Bangor rallied from a 2-1 deficit with two runs in the top of the fifth as the Maine District 3 champions capitalized on the wildness of Clarkesville starter Grier Rogers. He threw 15 pitches in the inning before being relieved by Ranger Jackson, 13 for balls as Anthony Martinez was hit by a pitch and Kyle Gallant walked.

Martinez scored on a pair of wild pitches by Rogers, and Jackson’s first pitch was drilled to the left field fence by Gordon Webb for an RBI single that gave Bangor a 3-2 lead.

Clarkesville tied the game in the sixth, loading the bases on two walks by Bangor starter Alex Gallant and a two-out single by Kyle Parker before Gallant hit Clark Mixon in the helmet with a 1-2 pitch to force in the tying run.

Gallant pitched admirably before tiring. He allowed only five hits while striking out seven and walking four in 5 2/3 innings.

Bangor managed just four hits off Rogers and Jackson, who combined for nine strikeouts and four walks.

“That’s kind of been the story of the last two games, we couldn’t get the key hit,” Jellison said, “but we played exceptionally well. It’s unfortunate, but I’m proud of my guys.”

U.S. SOUTH 4, BANGOR 3

(Pool A)

Bangor (1-2) Clarkesville, Ga. (2-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

K. Gallant, ss 3 1 0 0 Mixon, cf 2 1

Vanidestine, lf-2b 3 0 1 0 Garza, ss 4 0

Russell, 1b-p 3 1 1 0 Holden, 3b 3 0

Webb, c 4 0 2 1 Boydstan, lf 3 0 1

Edwards, 2b-3b 2 0 0 0 Jackson, 2b-p 2 0

A. Gallant, p-1b 2 0 0 0 Humphries, rf-2b 1

Walton, 3b-2b 1 0 0 0 Brantley, rf 1 0

Brookings, lf 0 0 0 0 Rogers, p-rf 2 0

Batchelder, lf 1 0 0 0 Vermilya, 1b 1 0

LaRochelle, rf 1 0 0 0 Parker, 1b 2 0

McDade, rf 1 0 0 0 Lewallen, c 2 0 0

Jellison, rf 1 0 0 0

Crews, cf 2 0 0 0

Martinez, cf 0 1 0 0

Totals 24 3 4 1 Totals 25 4 6 3

Bangor 100 020 0 – 3

U.S. South 110 001 1 – 4

Two outs when winning run scored.

E-Edwards; Holden, Rogers, Jackson, Garza; LOB-Bangor 6, U.S. South 9; 2B-Jackson, Humphries; DP-Garza to Parker; S-Brookings; SF-Boydstan; SB-Martinez 2, Vanidestine

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

A. Gallant 5 2/3 5 3 3 4 7

Russell (L, 1-1) 1 1 1 1 1 3

U.S. South IP H R ER BB SO

Rogers 4 1/3 2 3 2 4 5

Jackson (W, 1-0) 2 2/3 2 0 0 0 4

HBP-Martinez (by Rogers); Rogers (by A. Gallant), Mixon (by A. Gallant); WP-Rogers 2; PB-Webb; T-2:05; ATT-1,500 (est.)