PORTLAND – Opening day at the American Legion baseball state championships was a big success for Zone 1 champion Brewer and runner-up Bangor.

Brewer used a five-RBI performance by Ben Davis to defeat Zone 3 runner-up New Auburn 9-5 at Hadlock Field, while Bangor righthander Anthony DeRosa struck out 15 in an 11-3 win over Zone 3 champ Smith-Tobey of Bath.

Brewer scored five runs in the bottom of the second and never looked back.

Doubles by Joe Robicheau and Prentiss Swett gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead, and Andrew Otis added an RBI double. Davis singled home two more runs, and Rick Adams capped the uprising with a sacrifice fly.

Falcons starter Jim Nicknair faced just 10 batters over the first three innings before New Auburn scored in the fourth.

Justin Ciszewski walked and singles by Blackman and Tyler Dorris loaded the bases. Brewer’s Chris Maguire forced Blackman out at third on a grounder to the shortstop hole by Matt Meserve, but Ciszewski scored from third to cut the gap to 5-1.

Davis hit a three-run double to center in the bottom of the fifth and scored on back-to-back singles by Adams and Maguire to make it 9-1.

“I was just looking for a fastball to drive up the middle or the opposite way,” said Davis. “I got the pitch I wanted and did what I needed to do.”

Robicheau replaced Nicknair on the mound with the bases loaded, a run in, and one out in the sixth, with Wadleigh taking over at catcher.

The next batter, Jacob Marcum, popped a foul just to the left of the plate that resulted in a collision between Wadleigh and third baseman Kevin McAvoy, who made the catch. Wadleigh remained on the ground briefly before leaving the field under his own power. He was taken to a local hospital to have his ribs checked.

“It was a popup behind the catcher. I thought I had a chance at it, no one called for it, and I dove for it,” McAvoy said. “Wadleigh happened to dive for it at the same time and we just collided.”

With Robicheau forced to return behind the plate, McAvoy went to the mound – and was greeted by a three-run double from Derek Doucette to cut Brewer’s lead to 9-5.

But McAvoy allowed just one hit the rest of the way, retiring the last seven batters he faced.

“I really thought that was a gutsy performance by Kevin coming on in that situation and shutting a team down like that,” said Brewer coach David Morris.

Robicheau finished with two doubles, while Swett, Otis, and Davis each doubled and singled.

In the earlier game, DeRosa dominated Smith-Tobey with velocity and location.

“I was placing my two-seam fastball on the outside corner, and that worked,” said DeRosa, who scattered six hits and four walks in a 146-pitch effort. “A lot of pitches seemed like they started outside the strike zone and came back across.”

The game’s pivotal moment came with Bangor holding a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth as DeRosa escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam thanks to an appeal play on an apparent sacrifice fly by Smith-Tobey’s Steve May. Jordan Bichrest took off from third base as May lined to left, and though he returned toward the base, he missed touching the bag to tag up. Bangor appealed, and Bichrest was called out.

“To tell you the truth, it was someone in the stands that yelled it out,” said Bangor coach Fred Lower. “I didn’t see it, I was watching the outfielder, and we heard them yelling, so we thought, ‘what the heck,’ let’s take a shot at it.

“The umpire told me afterwards that the runner came off, went back, but never went all the way back to the bag.”

DeRosa then retired Nick Cloutier on a comebacker to the mound to end the inning.

Shane Walton’s two-run double off the replica of Fenway Park’s Green Monster left-field fence and a two-run single up the middle by Scott Hackett provided Bangor its key insurance, a four-run eighth-inning rally that stretched the lead to 8-3.

Tom Crews hit a two-run triple and scored on a Kyle Vanidestine groundout in the ninth for the Comrades’ final runs. Crews also hit two singles and DeRosa had three singles among Bangor’s 14 hits, while Russell, Vanidestine, and Ian Edwards each singled twice.

Bangor (22-6) 020 020 043 – 11 14 1

Smith-Tobey (21-2) 003 000 000 – 3 6 3

DeRosa and Webb; Hall, McPherson (8) and Cloutier

New Auburn (17-8-1) 000 104 000 – 5 7 4

Brewer (24-3) 050 040 00x – 9 11 0

Blackman, Ciszewski (6) and Meserve; Nicknair, Robicheau (6), McAvoy (6) and Robicheau, Wadleigh (6), Robicheau (6)