Brewer defeats Broncs Higgins earns pitching win

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BANGOR – Pitching on the big stage of an Eastern Maine Class A baseball final being witnessed by a thousand or more fans can be a daunting challenge.

But Brewer righthander Greg Higgins gradually rose to that occasion Tuesday night, pitching a six-hitter while his top-ranked Witches used six walks to score four first-inning runs en route to a 7-3 victory over No. 6 Hampden Academy in the regional championship game at Mansfield Stadium.

The win gave the Witches (17-2) their first Eastern A title since 1988, and advances coach Dave Morris’ club to Saturday’s noon state final against Western Maine champion Deering of Portland at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

“It’s been a tough battle to get here,” said Brewer senior first baseman Prentiss Swett. “We started on Day 1 with this as where we wanted to go. Now we’ve got one more win to get to where we really want to go.”

Higgins (9-0) struck out four, walked two and hit a batter while throwing 114 pitches, but after struggling in the first two innings the he limited Hampden to one run on three hits over the final five innings.

“It took a couple of innings until coach [Dana] Corey looked at me and told me I had to settle down because you can’t win a game unless you’re calm out there,” said Higgins. “You’ve just got to find a way to work around whatever problems you have.”

Hampden (13-7) took a 1-0 lead in the first as Shawn Smith reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and scored when Josh Tardiff singled to right.

But Brewer took control in the bottom of the inning as Hampden lefty Brennan Perry struggled with his control. The Witches managed just one hit, an RBI single by Eric White, but sent 10 batters to the plate and six drew walks, with bases-loaded walks to Higgins, Mike Kotredes and Caleb Smith helping Brewer take a 4-1 lead.

“Yesterday coach said to lay off the high fastball and lay off the 58-foot curveball and that’s exactly what we did,” said Swett. “We didn’t let those pitches get to us and we took advantage of every pitch [Perry] threw that was a ball.”

Hampden cut the gap to 4-2 in the second, as Caleb Kirk singled, Perry walked and Cody Miller was hit by a pitch before Nolan Turner hit an infield single to drive home Kirk.

But Higgins retired the next two batters he faced to get out of the bases-loaded jam allowing just one run.

Perry (4-3) also settled down, and after walking seven batters in the first two innings worked into the sixth before giving way to reliever Jacob Moore. Perry finished with 12 strikeouts – including 10 of the first 11 outs he recorded – and 10 walks while allowing six earned runs on three hits.

“Brennan had control issues in that first inning, and I told him a lot of high school athletes would have folded in that situation, but not him,” said Hampden coach McLean Poulin. “He kept his head and went out and battled, and after that first inning pitched a heck of a game.”

Brewer’s lead grew to 5-2 in the fifth as Swett walked, took second on a balk, stole third and scored on a wild pitch.

Hampden put runners on first and third with no outs in the sixth as Perry singled to left and went to third when Cody Miller doubled down the left-field line. But the Broncos managed just one run, as Perry scored on a groundout by Turner before Higgins induced Ryan McCluskey into an inning-ending groundout to second baseman Kyle O’Connell.

“I don’t think Greg had his best stuff, but the one thing I saw was that he pitched with a lot of heart,” said Morris. “He didn’t give up that big, big hit, and he demonstrated his character when they had runners at second and third and no outs and he held them to one run.”

Brewer added two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Smith singled, stole second and scored on a one-out single by Chase Daniels off Hampden reliever Jacob Moore. Daniels went to second on an White groundout and to third on a single by Thoms, and after a walk to Swett he scored on a bases-loaded walk to Higgins.

WITCHES 7, BRONCOS 3

Hampden Acad. (13-7) Brewer (17-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Turner, ss 4 0 1 2 Sasaki, cf 3 1 0

McCluskey, 2b 4 0 0 0 Daniels, dh 3 1

S. Smith, cf 4 1 0 0 O’Connell, 2b 0 0 0

Tardiff, 1b 4 0 1 1 White, lf 4 1 1

Stephens, c 3 0 0 0 Swett, 1b 1 1 0

Kirk, dh 3 1 1 0 Thoms, c 2 1 0

Mourkas, rf 0 0 0 0 Higgins, p 2 0 2

Perry, p 2 1 1 0 Bissell, rf 4 0 0

Moore, p 0 0 0 0 Kotredes, 3b 1 0 1

Miller, 3b 2 0 1 0 C. Smith, ss 2 1 1

Lindemann, lf 3 0 1 0

Totals 29 3 6 3 Totals 22 7 5 6

Hampden Acad. 110 001 0 – 3

Brewer 400 012 x – 7

E-C. Smith 2; LOB-Hampden 8, Brewer 9; 2B-Miller; White; SB-S. Smith; White 2, Swett 2, Daniels, C. Smith

Hampden Acad. IP H R ER BB SO

Perry (L, 4-3) 5 3 6 6 10 12

Moore 1 2 1 1 2 1

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Higgins (W, 9-0) 7 6 3 2 2 4

HBP-Miller (by Higgins); WP-Perry; BK-Perry; T-2:03; ATT-1,000 (est.)