STANDISH – There wasn’t a championship on the line, but Bangor’s 12-7 victory over Nova Seafood of Portland in Saturday’s first round of the American Legion baseball state tournament represented a modest level of revenge.

Many of the Comrades were on the Bangor High School team that dropped an 11-4 decision to Deering of Portland – which plays in the Legion ranks as Nova Seafood – in the 2007 Class A state championship game.

“We came into this game pretty excited to play them because of what happened during the school year,” said Shane Walton, Bangor’s third baseman on both teams. “It’s sweet revenge to win a game, but we came here to win the whole thing, not just this one game, so we’ve got more to play after this.”

Zone 1 champion Brewer dropped its state tournament opener later in the day, a 2-0 decision to Zone 4 runnerup Fayette-Staples of Saco and righthander Brian Morrison, who threw just 89 pitches in a nine-inning seven-hitter.

Walton and outfielder Tom Crews led Bangor’s 16-hit attack against Nova Seafood. Walton hit a triple and three singles while driving in four runs, while Crews hit a single, double and a three-run home run in the sixth inning when the Comrades scored five runs to take a 9-3 lead.

Walton had tripled home a run and Alex Gallant had an RBI single before Crews followed a single by Ian Edwards by greeting Nova Seafood reliever Ben Ives – who earned the save for Deering in the high school state final – with his home run.

Crews took Ives’ first pitch, then skied the second pitch beyond the left-field fence at Saint Joseph’s College.

“I knew when they brought in Ives that he can throw the ball pretty hard, so once he threw me a slider on the first pitch I had a feeling he was going to throw me a fastball so I loaded up on it, but it hit the inside of the bat,” Crews said. “I thought it was a popup, but I got it enough up in the air so it carried.”

Nova Seafood clawed back with three runs in the bottom of the sixth and one more in the seventh off Bangor starter Jim Cox, but Neal Russell came on in the eighth and pitched two scoreless innings of relief to earn the save.

Walton hit an RBI single in the ninth and scored as Gordon Webb belted a two-run home run to left to provide Bangor some insurance.

“We knew we had to get some runs because we knew they were going to score,” said Walton. “We were just trying to get our bats hot early, and they did come alive during the middle of the game and we were able to keep it going.”

Cox scattered nine hits while striking out six, walking four and hitting three batters.

“They’re a tough team, so I had to throw a lot of pitches and work for the outs, but I was comfortable with my defense behind me,” Cox said.

That defense did not commit an error, an effort highlighted by a diving catch by leftfielder Tyson Barron that robbed Regan Flaherty of a seventh-inning hit and some stellar work by Scott Hackett at shortstop and Webb behind the plate.

“I saw that when we walked a batter or hit a batter it came back to hurt us,” said Hackett, “and having no errors was huge because it just kept runners off base and took a lot of pressure off Jim.”

Brewer was unable to generate any offense against Morrison, a pitcher for the University of Maine at Farmington last spring who kept the ball around the strike zone and was aided by three double plays.

Brewer got its own solid pitching from Greg Higgins, who allowed one earned run in eight innings while scattering six hits along with four walks and two strikeouts.

“Greg didn’t have his best stuff, but he kept us in the game and we just didn’t get that timely hit,” Brewer coach David Morris said. “When you hit into double plays like we did, at this level of baseball you’re going to pretty much knock yourself out.”

Fayette-Staples scored the game’s only runs in the top of the eighth.

Matt Roberts and Scott Madden each walked to start the inning, and leadoff hitter Dan Ingraham pushed a bunt past Higgins for a single that loaded the bases. Roberts scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Matt Leach, and Steve Trask followed with a two-out RBI single.

“When you have your eighth and ninth batters come up, you hope the bottom of the order gets on base and then you can do something with your top,” said Morris. “That worked out well for them. They got in that situation where they could bunt and move people over and then they had a couple of timely hits.”

Prentiss Swett led Brewer with three singles, while leadoff hitter Ricky Adams added two singles for the Falcons, who advanced just one runner as far as third and only two others to second.

Brewer was without one of its top hitters in Chris Maguire, who was suited up on the bench but unable to play after being involved in a car accident Thursday night. “We knew that it was going to be tough for him to play,” said Morris. “We’re just very thankful that he’s here.”

Bangor (22-5) 000 405 003 – 12 16 0

Nova Seafood (20-6) 001 023 100 – 7 9 2

Cox, Russell (8) and Webb; Candage, Ives (6), Young (7) and Watson

Fayette-Staples (21-6) 000 000 020 – 2 8 1

Brewer (16-10) 000 000 000 – 0 7 1

Morrison and Adams; Higgins, Daniels (9) and Wadleigh