Bangor caps off perfect season Edwards, Rams knock off Eagles

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BANGOR – The Bangor High School baseball team has won six Class A state titles during the last 22 years, the most recent in 2006.

But not since 1985 had the Rams had an undefeated regular season – until Friday, when Bangor completed a 16-0 run through its schedule with a 12-2, five-inning victory over Messalonskee of Oakland at Mansfield Stadium.

Ian Edwards pitched a four-hitter and extended his streak without allowing an earned run to 34 innings covering his last six starts. The junior righthander, 6-0 this spring, struck out six and walked two.

Bangor – winner of its last 27 games overall – complemented that pitching with a 14-hit offense. That included a triple, two singles and three RBIs from Edwards along with two singles and three RBIs from senior DH Alex Gallant, two singles and three runs scored from junior third baseman Shane Walton and two singles and two RBIs from senior catcher Gordon Webb.

“We’re all hitting the ball very well,” said Gallant. “We’re not intimidated by fast pitchers, or pitchers with any other kind of pitch. We go up there knowing we’ve got to get base hits and do whatever we can to get on base, because when we do that good things happen.”

The Rams scored five runs on six hits in the first inning alone, and by the time Bangor had one out in the third every batter in the lineup already had at least one hit.

“They’ve played great right from day one, really,” said Bangor coach Jeff Fahey. “We had an 8-7 win over Brewer and a 2-0 win over Skowhegan, and those were the only two times we were really contested. We had good games through three innings sometimes – we were behind Hampden the other day – but when our bats get warmed up we’re really tough.”

Two Bangor errors did allow Messalonskee to get on the board in the fourth and end Edwards’ scoreless streak at 32 2/3 innings, but that was the only negative in an otherwise clinical performance.

“I was very happy with the way we played,” said Fahey, “and like I told the guys we were three throws away from playing our best game of the year.”

Bangor sent nine batters to the plate in the first against Messalonskee righthander Eric Sucy (1-3). Gallant had a two-run single to ignite the rally, and Tom Crews followed with a two-run triple to deep left-center before scoring on Tyler McDade’s single to center.

The Rams extended their lead to 7-0 in the second on a two-run ground single to left by Webb, and scored two more runs in the third on two-out RBI singles by Walton and Edwards.

Messalonskee (7-8) scored its runs in the fourth on singles by Tony Jacobs and Ben Seel, a double steal and two Bangor throwing errors on a pickoff play.

Bangor ended the game in the fifth against Messalonskee reliever Matt Stuart. Kyle Vanidestine walked, Walton singled and both runners scored when Edwards tripled to left-center. Gallant then worked the count to 3-0 before flaring a single to right that drove home pinch-runner Jimmy Burns, marking the eighth time this spring the Rams have won early via the 10-run rule.

“We never come into a game thinking the 10 runs are going to happen,” said Gallant. “We just keep our focus and we keep the bats going and we play the solid ‘D’ behind our pitching and it’s turned out good.”

Bangor, which will be the No. 1 seed in Eastern A entering postseason play, now is idle for 13 days before the regional quarterfinals on June 7, save for hosting the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship game next Friday.

“I think we all know that it’s pretty special and a pretty big deal going 16-0,” said Gallant. “We’ve had a good season. Each game we keep getting better, and that’s the good thing about our team, we haven’t peaked yet.”

RAMS 12, EAGLES 2

(5 innings)

Messalonskee (7-8) Bangor (16-0)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Curato, cf 3 0 0 0 Vanidestine, rf 3 2 0

Gilbert, ss 2 0 0 0 Walton, 3b 3 3 1

Jacobs, c 1 1 1 0 Edwards, p 3 2 3

Fenlason, rf 2 0 0 0 Burns, pr 0 1 0

Seel, 1b 2 1 2 0 Gallant, dh 3 1 3

Dumont, lf 2 0 0 0 Kelley, 2b 0 0 0

McCann, 3b 2 0 0 0 Webb, c 2 1 2 2

Bouchard, 3b 0 0 0 0 Crews, cf 3 1 2

Sucy, p 1 0 0 0 McDade, 1b 3 0 1

Stuart, p 1 0 1 0 Cox, ss 3 1 1 0

Guerrette, dh 1 0 0 0 R. Larochelle, lf 0

Bernier, 2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 17 2 4 0 Totals 26 12 14 12

Messalonskee 000 20 – 2

Bangor 522 03 – 12

E-Dumont, Stuart; Edwards, Webb, R. Larochelle; LOB-Messalonskee 2, Bangor 6; 3B-Crews, Edwards; SB-Seel 2, Jacobs; Walton 2

Messalonskee IP H R ER BB SO

Sucy (L, 1-3) 2 8 8 8 3 2

Stuart 2 1/3 6 4 4 2 2

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Edwards (W, 6-0) 5 4 2 0 2 6

Sucy pitched to one batter in 3rd

WP-Edwards; PB-Jacobs; T-1:34; ATT-125 (est.)