September 21, 2024
AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL

Bangor, Brewer to play today Andrews to battle Nova Seafood

BANGOR – Big innings marked Day 2 of the state American Legion baseball tournament Sunday at Mansfield Stadium.

. Andrews Post of Portland scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth to rally past Brewer 7-2.

. Bangor scored 12 runs in the top of the seventh to eliminate Bessey Motors of South Paris 12-6.

. Gardiner broke a 1-1 tie with six runs in the bottom of the sixth to eliminate New Auburn 7-1.

. And defending national champion Nova Seafood of Portland used a five-run fifth en route to a seven-inning, 13-3 win over Monmouth.

The tourney continues Monday with three intrazone matchups. Zone 1 rivals Brewer and Bangor will meet in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Monday, followed at 4 by an elimination game between Zone 2 foes Gardiner Monmouth.

Zone 4 powers Andrews Post and Nova Seafood will square off at 7 p.m. in a winners’ bracket contest.

Andrews and Brewer stranded 17 runners through the first seven innings thanks to the resiliency of Brewer righthander Pat Moran and 16-year-old Andrews lefty Ryan Arsenault.

Brewer took a 2-0 lead with runs in the second and fifth innings. Andrew Patterson led off the second with a single and later scored on Nye Gifford’s one-out single up the middle.

Andrew Otis singled to start the Brewer fifth, then was nearly picked off before the throw to second base was misplayed. A Jeff Miller groundout moved Otis to third, and he scored on Kevin McAvoy’s single to right.

Andrews reached Moran for a run in the bottom of the fifth, on a David Neally sacrifice fly.

Brewer put its first two runners aboard in the seventh, marking the end of Arsenault’s day on the mound. But reliever Malcolm Cone-Coleman induced Moran to hit into a double play, then got Patterson to ground out to end the threat.

“I was joking with the umpire afterward about how it was a great coaching move,” said Andrews coach Mike Rutherford. “Malcolm’s not a strikeout pitcher, and they had their No. 4 hitter up, so I told him to throw his gravity sinker and we’ll get a double play and get out of the inning, and that’s what happened.

“If that ball hit is one foot to the right or to the left, they might still be hitting.”

Neally singled to open the Andrews eighth, and an infield error and a walk loaded the bases. A fielder’s choice by Craig DeFillip plated the tying run, then Joey Martin, who had already doubled twice, was issued an intentional walk.

Cone-Coleman hit a comebacker to the mound, but while Moran was able to force out the lead runner at home, the Falcons were unable to turn what would have been an inning-ending double play.

O’Brion made them pay, hitting a two-run single to left that gave Andrews a 4-2 lead.

“We needed a big hit,” O’Brion said. “He had me at a full count, and I was just trying drop one in there.”

After Joe Fessenden was intentionally walked, Anthony Fasulo capped off the rally with a three-run single to right-center.

“Their hitters were a little more relaxed in key situations,” said Brewer coach David Morris.”

Bangor showed few signs of being able to erupt offensively in falling behind 6-0 through six innings. The Comrades had scored just one run in the first 15 innings of the tournament, and Bessey Motors righthander Joe Baker had retired 16 straight Bangor batters entering the top of the seventh.

“We were all down, we were discouraged because we only had one hit against this kid,” said Bangor’s Gordon Webb. “But we had a talk in the back room and got some encouragement from our captains, and we came back.”

But when Baker hit Bangor’s Alex Means with a pitch to open the seventh, the Comrades sensed an opportunity, and a team that had hit mostly fly- ball outs since the tournament started to find gaps.

By the time the inning was over, 16 batters had stepped to the plate, amassing 10 hits to go with two key Bessey Motors errors.

No one was bigger for Bangor than Webb, the Comrades’ 16-year-old catcher. He hit a two-run double early in the inning, then greeted reliever Andrew Stacy by blasting a 1-1 pitch to left for a three-run home run to cap off the inning.

“It was a fastball inside,” he said. “I knew it was coming, I guessed right.”

Josh Young added two RBI singles, while Brian Hackett also singled twice.

Suddenly Bangor righthander Anthony DeRosa, who had relieved starter Keith Nason in the sixth, was in position to earn the win, and he delivered a scoreless four-inning performance.

“He was immense,” said Bangor coach John Winkin. “We had to do something to stop them until we could get some offense going, and he did a tremendous job.”

DeRosa struck out five and walked two.

“I haven’t felt this good in a while,” said DeRosa, whose first pitch was clocked at 88 mph. “I felt like I had a lot of pop on my fastball, and my curveball was working great.”

Jordan Heath added two singles for Bangor.

Kyle Keniston had three singles for Bessey Motors, while Chris Jennings doubled and singled and Matt McDonnell singled twice.

Nova Seafood pitchers struck out 14 Monmouth batters in Sunday’s late game, including all six hitters faced by starter Chris Burleson.

Jeff Skillin hit a home run, double and single with six RBIs to pace Nova’s 12-hit attack, while Andrew Giobbi doubled and singled, Ryan Flaherty doubled and Burleson singled and added a sacrifice fly. The Zone 4 runnersup also benefit from 10 walks and two hit batters issued by four Monmouth pitchers.

Mark Wade had an RBI double for Monmouth.

In the day’s first game, Stefan Black pitched a complete-game six-hitter and had three singles as Gardiner stayed alive.

Black and Eric Hachey each had RBI singles in the sixth inning when Gardiner broke the game open.

Hachey and Nick Acheson each added two singles to Gardiner’s 12-hit attack, while Justin Ciszewski and Ben Dyer each doubled for Zone 3 runnerup New Auburn.

(Sunday’s First Game)

New Auburn (17-8) 000 001 000 -1 6 2

Gardiner (17-9) 010 006 00x -7 12 1

Ciszewski, Giguere (6), Merrill (8) and Nadeau; Black and Hachey

(Sunday’s Second Game)

Bangor (21-7) 000 000 (12)00 -12 11 3

Bessey Motors (17-9) 000 510 000 -6 12 4

Nason, DeRosa (6) and Webb; Baker, Stacy (7) and Estes

(Sunday’s Third Game)

Brewer (25-3) 010 010 000 -2 7 2

Andrews Post (24-1) 000 010 06x -7 11 3

Moran and Robicheau; Arsenault, Cone-Coleman (7) and Neally, O’Brion (8)

(Sunday’s Fourth Game)

Nova Seafood (20-6) 202 251 1 -13 12 3

Monmouth (21-3) 000 012 0 -3 6 6

Burleson, Ives (3), Smalley (4), LeRoy (6), Flaherty (7) and Giobbi, Bartlett (6); Jillson, Bisson (3), Denbow (5), Clark (6) and Hasenfus, Kibler (7)

Correction: A shorter version of these results ran in the State edition.

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