HAMPDEN – Brewer was one strike away from a dramatic 12-10 come-from-behind American Legion baseball victory over Hampden Thursday night.

But when an abusive Brewer fan gave home plate umpire Brian Currie an earful after a close 2-2 pitch was called ball three, Currie had heard enough.

The umpire took off his mask and walked off the field. Base umpire Everett Tewhey, who was Currie’s ride, also left.

The fan had been heckling Currie for a couple of innings.

The game will apparently be suspended and resumed when the two teams play again in Brewer on July 17.

Brewer coach Dave Morris and Hampden coach Adam Sheehan were dumbfounded as were the players and fans.

Currie had no comment as he took off his gear and stuffed it into his gym bag.

“I’ve never seen it before,” said Morris. “On a personal basis, Brian Currie is a great guy. I guess umpires have bad days just like players and coaches. I feel bad for the kids and I feel bad for him. It’s a tough situation. Everybody is kind of stunned.”

Sheehan said, “I don’t exactly know what was said. I don’t know what happened. But I know Brian and he’s a good guy. Something must have happened. All I know is I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ll have to see what becomes of it.”

Morris said he assumes the game will be considered a suspended game.

“Next time we play them, we’ll throw a pitch and see what happens. We’ll either walk him [Tim Kenerson] or end the game,” said Morris.

“It wouldn’t be fair to them [Hampden] to call it a completed game at this point. They battled. We battled,” added Morris.

The bizarre ending took away from a wild seesaw game that saw the Riverdogs rally for four runs in the sixth, three coming on Joel Neill’s third homer of the season, to take an 8-6 lead into the seventh.

But after registering the first out, Hampden reliever Brennan Perry walked three straight Falcons, which brought Travis Estes in to pitch.

Rick Adams walked to force in the first run and Eddie Robbins tied it as his slow roller to second went for an infield single.

Chris Maguire’s infield single, a high bounding ball to second, broke the tie and, one out later, Cam Wadleigh belted a three-run double to right-center.

“I was looking for an off-speed pitch and I adjusted to a fastball over the outside corner,” said Wadleigh.

In the bottom of the seventh, Eric White got the first two outs before Shawn Smith walked and Corey Harding blooped a double into short left field.

A wild pitch and a throwing error by catcher Wadleigh allowed two runs to score. White walked Joel Neill before Greg Higgins was called in to pitch to Kenerson, going to a 3-2 count on him when Currie departed.

Hampden rallied from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to take a 4-3 lead in the fifth on Pat Stephens’ two-out RBI double and Brian Perry’s RBI single.

But Brewer answered with three in the sixth, two coming on Maguire’s long double to left-center and the other coming on Perry’s wild pitch.

But the Riverdogs struck back in the bottom of the sixth as a walk and singles by Smith and Harding (RBI) preceded Neill’s booming blast to left off starter Jim Nicknair.

Robbins had three hits for the Falcons with Adams, Maguire, and Prentiss Swett collecting two each. Smith had three hits for Hampden with Harding and Stephens picking up two each.