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PORTLAND – The Brewer Falcons advanced to a winners’ bracket showdown against undefeated Andrews Post of Portland at the state American Legion baseball tournament by outlasting Coastal Athletics 9-7 in the final game of second-day action Sunday night.
Righthander Corey Cushing scattered six hits over 7 1/3 innings for Brewer, while Kevin McAvoy homered and singled with four RBIs and Chris Maguire doubled twice and singled to lead a 14-hit Falcons attack.
The Zone 1 champs (25-3) will face 24-0 Andrews – a 10-1 winner over Zone 1 runnerup Bangor – at 7 p.m. Monday at Hadlock Field in Portland.
Bangor (22-7) will play in a 1 p.m. elimination game against Zone 2 champion Monmouth (21-3), which eliminated Zone 3 runnerup New Auburn 8-7.
Zone 4 runnerup Coastal Athletics (18-8-1) of South Portland will meet Zone 2 runnerup Gardiner (20-5) in Monday’s second elimination game at 4 p.m. Gardiner eliminated Zone 3 champ Smith-Tobey of Bath 9-0 on Sunday.
Brewer wasted no time going on the offensive in a game that ended at 11:45 p.m., scoring four runs in the top of the first off Coastal Athletics righthander Pat Murphy.
Ricky Adams opened the game by beating out an infield single. Maguire hit the next pitch for a double to left, and McAvoy hit the first pitch he saw for a two-run single down the left-field line. McAvoy went to second on the throw home and to third on a wild pitch before scoring the Falcons’ third run on a groundout by Prentiss Swett.
But Brewer wasn?t done. Brad Brown hit a two-out triple to right-center, and scored the final run of the inning as Andrew Otis singled to center.
The Falcons made it 5-0 in the second. Eddie Robbins hit a leadoff single, went to third on Maguire?s second double and scored on a wild pitch.
Coastal Athletics got on the board in the third, as Josh Garneau walked, reached second on a wild pitch, took third on a single to center by Steve Bartlett and scored on Cushing’s second wild pitch of the inning. Bartlett scored on a fielder’s choice by Murphy to cut the gap to 5-2, and Murphy scored on two overthrows after he stole second base.
A two-run Coastal Athletics rally in the fifth featuring RBI doubles by Murphy and Mike Wells tied the game.
Brewer countered with two runs in the sixth to regain the lead. Robbins was hit by a pitch with two outs, and Adams walked. Both scored when a single to right by Maguire was misplayed, giving the Falcons a 7-5 lead.
McAvoy, who also drew two intentional walks, unloaded a two-run homer in the Brewer eighth just to the right of the Maine Monster replica of Fenway Park’s Green Monster fence in left field.
Kyle Dancause’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning cut the gap to 9-6 and marked the end of Cushing’s night on the mound. Maguire came on and yielded a sacrifice fly to Bartlett, but retired Will Furbush on a groundout to end the inning with the tying run at second base.
McAvoy pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.
Earlier in the day, defending state champion Andrews Post gave Bangor a dose of all things baseball.
Foremost was lefthander Ryan Arsenault, who struck out 15 and walked one while pitching a complete-game five-hitter for the Zone 4 champs.
“I hadn’t pitched in over two weeks and just came out fresh,” said Arsenault. “My curveball was working pretty good, I was hitting my spots and felt good all around.”
The 124-pitch performance marked Arsenault’s first nine-inning complete game. His strikeout total also was a career high – besting a 14Kperformance during a no-hitter he threw during the 2006 high school season.
“I told our guys we needed to adjust at the plate, and we struggled with that a little bit,” said Bangor coach Fred Lower. “He got us with the curveball and we didn’t adjust. We were trying to pull it, and it hurt us.”
While Arsenault silenced the Bangor bats – save for a seventh-inning flurry when Ian Edwards hit a leadoff triple and scored when Scott Hackett lined an RBI single off the pitcher’s torso – Andrews also played errorless defense while mounting a 16-hit attack of its own against four Comrades’ pitchers.
No. 9 batter John Moran had a double and two singles, while six other Andrews players had two hits apiece, including leadoff hitter John O’Brion, who singled and hit the game’s lone home run, a solo shot in the seventh inning. O’Brion, Anthony Fasulo and Joe Fessenden each had two RBIs.
Andrews got to Bangor starter Jim Cox with three runs on four hits in the top of the fourth.
Andrews (24-0) 000 310 024 – 10 16 0
Bangor (22-7) 000 000 100 – 1 5 2
Arsenault and Nealley; Cox, Russell (5), Leeman 8, Clarke 9 and Webb
Brewer (25-3) 410 002 020 – 9 14 3
Coastal Ath. (18-8-1) 003 020 020 – 7 8 1
Cushing, Maguire (8), McAvoy (9) and Robicheau; Murphy, Furbush (6) and Dancause
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