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STANDISH – After a second-place finish in the Zone 1 tournament, the Bangor Comrades got a bit of rest, then went back to work on reinvigorating their offense.
That elixir has produced some impressive results, as the Comrades remained unbeaten at the state American Legion baseball tournament Sunday with a 15-1, seven-inning victory over New Auburn.
Bangor pounded out 14 hits off three New Auburn pitchers, and now has 30 hits in its two state tournament wins.
“Definitely having some time off helped,” said center fielder Tom Crews, who went 4-for-4 for the second straight game and has now reached base in all 10 of his tournament plate appearances. “We had a day off and then we just went back and practiced our hitting. We only did it for 45 minutes or an hour a day, but it definitely helped.”
Bangor (23-5) next will play the winner of Sunday’s late game between Monmouth and Fayette-Staples of Saco in a winner’s bracket game at 6 p.m. Monday.
Gordon Webb added three singles and four RBIs for the Comrades, while Shane Walton tripled and doubled, Scott Hackett singled twice and Kyle Vanidestine tripled.
“We’ve just come focused and ready to play,” said Webb. “We’ve got a lot of guys hitting, it’s really the focus factor working, and Shane Walton and Tom Crews are hitting the best.”
The one-sided victory also enabled Bangor to preserve the depth within its pitching staff by pulling starter Ian Edwards after three innings with the Comrades holding an 11-0 lead.
Edwards struck out five and walked no one while scattering three hits before giving way to Jordan Clarke, who worked three innings for the win before Neal Russell worked a perfect seventh.
“Up 11-0, we thought it would be silly to leave [Ian] in there and use his innings,” said Bangor coach Fred Lower. “And Jordan Clarke has pitched in big games before, but we thought this was a good opportunity for him to pitch in this setting.”
The Comrades gave Edwards a 2-0 lead before he threw his first pitch. Vanidestine drew a leadoff walk in the first, then scored when Walton blasted an opposite-field triple to deep right field.
Webb followed with a sacrifice fly down the left-field line in foul territory.
Chad Kelley drew a leadoff walk in the second and scored when Walton tattooed another part of the Mahaney Diamond fence, this time in left field for a double.
Webb followed with an RBI single to right-center to make it 4-0.
The Comrades broke the game open with five unearned runs in the third, a rally that drove New Auburn starter Brady Blackman from the mound. Webb hit a two-run single to highlight the uprising, while Kelley and Vanidestine each singled home a run as Bangor stretched its lead to 9-0.
Back-to-back singles by Crews and Hackett followed by three wild pitches by New Auburn reliever Adam Redman extended the margin to 11-0 in the top of the fourth.
New Auburn scored an unearned run off Clarke in the bottom of the fourth on one-out walks to Corey LaRue and Adam Redman followed by a Bangor error after a double steal.
Bangor countered with two more runs in the fifth. Edwards started things with a sharp two-out single up the middle. Crews walked before Hackett hit an RBI single, and Crews scored when Tyson Barron reached on an infield error.
Crews capped off his day with a two-run single in the sixth after Webb had singled and Alex Gallant reached on a fielder’s choice.
Bangor (23-5) 225 222 0 – 15 14 1
New Auburn (17-5) 000 100 0 – 1 4 4
Edwards, Clarke (4), Russell (7) and Webb, McDade (7); Blackman, Redman (3), Muise (6) and LaRue
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