BANGOR – Pitching for the Brewer American Legion baseball team this summer has basically meant pitching with a lead, because the Falcons have had a tendency to score in bunches early in games.

Andrew Patterson, for one, doesn’t mind the support.

“That’s been the case all year,” said the righthander after pitching Brewer to a 10-2 win over Gardiner in opening-night play of the state AL tournament at Mansfield Stadium on Saturday. “In the zone tournament we pounded out a ton of hits, and it’s nice to come out in the second inning after we get three or four runs and pitch with a lead.”

Brewer scored three runs in the bottom of the first against Gardiner, and Patterson made that stand up with a complete-game five-hitter.

Patterson didn’t allow a hit until Nick Godfrey led off the Gardiner fifth with a single, and he finished with 11 strikeouts and four walks.

“I was just trying to get ahead of the hitters,” said Patterson, 7-0 on the season. “[Gardiner] came from Zone 2 and we didn’t know much about them, so I just wanted to keep the ball low and let the defense do the work, and good things happened.”

Brewer’s victory gave Zone 1 a split in the first day of the eight-team double-elimination event.

Zone 1 runner-up Bangor dropped an 8-1 decision to Zone 2 champ Monmouth in the tournament opener.

Zone 4 champion Andrews Post of Portland and defending national champion Nova Seafood of Portland also picked up first-day wins, Andrews shutting out New Auburn 10-0 in seven innings and Nova Seafood defeating Zone 3 champion Bessey Motors of South Paris 13-3.

Brewer won the Zone 1 title by averaging 15 hits in four zone tourney wins. The Falcons picked up where they left off against Gardiner – with seven different players accounting for the team’s 14 hits.

Matt Grimes and Chris Maguire each had three singles for the Falcons, while Kevin McAvoy had a triple and a single good for three RBIs, and Patterson and Jeff Miller added two hits each.

Run-scoring singles by McAvoy and Patterson helped Brewer take a 3-0 lead in the first, and Maguire singled home Pat Moran in the third to make it 4-0.

Andrew Otis singled to lead off the Brewer fifth, stole second, and went to third on a single by Miller before scoring on a passed ball.

Gardiner, the Zone 2 runner-up, reached Patterson for two runs on three hits in the sixth. Peter Lewis and Mike Burdin each had bunt singles before Tom Colby had an RBI single to left and Stefan Black hit a sacrifice fly.

Brewer padded its lead with five runs in the eighth. Miller and Grimes each had an RBI single before they scored on McAvoy’s long triple to the left-center field gap. McAvoy scored on a passed ball.

In Saturday’s first game, Justin Plourde scattered nine hits over 8 2/3 innings and Mike Eaton drove in three runs as Monmouth defeated Bangor in state tourney play for the second straight year.

Plourde, a righthander, struck out three and walked only one to improve his record to 8-0 before Eaton came on in relief to get the game’s final out.

Josh Young pitched a complete game for Bangor, allowing 10 singles while striking out three, walking three, and hitting two batters.

Monmouth took a 4-0 lead on four hits in the bottom of the second as Scott Ogden had an RBI single, Eaton singled home two runs, and Sean Holbrook added an RBI on a groundout.

Monmouth made it 5-0 with a run on three hits in the sixth, including an RBI single by Brian Bisson.

Bangor stranded two runners in the second, third, and fourth innings before reaching Plourde for its only run in the top of the seventh. Scott Hackett hit a leadoff single to right and moved to third on Jordan Heath’s one-out single to center before Jason Eremita followed with an RBI single to center.

Monmouth added three runs in the eighth, with Eaton contributing an RBI single.

Holbrook, Eaton, Ogden, and Justin Denbow each singled twice for Monmouth. Young doubled and singled for Bangor, while Hackett and Eremita had two singles each.

Andrews Post scored in six of its seven at-bats to advance to the winners bracket.

Joey Martin, who pitched the first six innings for the win, also tripled, singled, and scored two runs while reaching base four times.

Andrew Nodine added a two-run triple and a single, Joe Call tripled and singled, and John O’Brion had two singles and two RBIs.

Kevin Smith paced New Auburn with two singles, while Matt Nadeau doubled.

Nova Seafood used two-run singles by winning pitcher Jeff Skillin and Ryan Piacentini in the third inning to spark a four-run rally that snapped a 1-1 tie.

Chris Burleson hit a two-run triple in the sixth that extended the lead to 8-2, and the four-time defending state champs added five runs in the ninth, an uprising featuring Mike D’Andrea’s two-run double.

Burleson finished with four of Nova’s 17 hits, three singles and a triple. Skillin had a triple and two singles, while Ryan Flaherty tripled and doubled, D’Andrea doubled and singled, and Piacentini and Josh Linscott each singled twice.

Andrew Stacy paced Bessey Motors with a double and a single, while Matt McDonnell singled twice.

(Saturday’s First Game)

Bangor (20-7) 000 000 100 – 1 9 1

Monmouth (21-2) 040 001 03x – 8 10 1

Young and Webb; Plourde, Eaton (9) and Hasenfus

(Saturday’s Second Game)

New Auburn (17-7) 000 000 0 – 0 5 3

Andrews (23-1) 201 222 1 – 10 13 0

Blackman, Merrill (7) and Nadeau; Martin, Moran (7) and Nealley, O’Brion (7)

(Saturday’s Third Game)

Nova Seafood (19-6) 104 012 005 – 13 17 1

Bessey Motors (17-8) 010 011 000 – 3 7 2

Skillin, Ives (7), D’Andrea (8), Candage (9) and Giobbi, Bartlett (9); Tielinen, Yates (9) and Estes

(Saturday’s Fourth Game)

Gardiner (16-9) 000 002 000 – 2 5 0

Brewer (25-2) 301 100 05x – 10 14 3

Taylor, Godfrey (4), Acheson (8), Bobrowiecki (8) and Black; Patterson and Robicheau