ORONO – For the top-seeded Bangor-Brewer Twins to add a postseason title to their regular-season championship, they would have to win two straight against a team that had already beaten them in the playoffs.
The Twins played two entirely different games that ended with the same results here at Mahaney Diamond on the University of Maine campus Thursday night and swept the Downeast Yankees of Ellsworth 4-3 and 14-4 to win the Eastern Maine Amateur Baseball League title.
The 4-1 Twins rallied from near-elimination in the first game by scoring two outs in the bottom of the seventh for the win.
In the second game, the Twins assaulted Yankee pitching with 10 hits and made Downeast pay dearly for committing nine errors. Seven of Bangor-Brewer’s 14 runs were unearned.
Bangor-Brewer won the postseason crown because the team would not let Downeast get a third out easily. All four of the Twins’ runs in the first game were scored with two outs already up on the scoreboard.
The Twins were piling up so many hits and runs in the second game, Downeast pitchers had to face almost the entire order before getting a third out. In the fifth inning, Yankee hurlers pitched to 10 Bangor-Brewer batters.
“The key is we’ve been hitting right down through the lineup,” said player-coach Frank Peckham. “(Positions) One through nine have been a tough out.”
“We always play well when it comes down to crunch time,” said Twins pitcher Rob White. “We had that emotional high going into the second game. We didn’t come ready to play in the first.
Peckham was one of the offensive heroes. In the second game, he doubled and singled, drove in a run, scored a run, and stole three bases.
Rob White also paced the Twins, going 2-for-3 with three stolen bases and scoring four runs. The righthander went the distance in the 10-run rule shortened game – pitching a four-hitter, striking out six, and walking five for the win.
Right fielder Ron Hewes belted a two-run double in the fifth inning to chase Downeast starter Troy Brown. Hewes also hit an RBI single and scored twice. Center fielder Chad White hit two RBI singles, scored twice, and stole a base.
For the 3-2 Yankees, right fielder Dan Kane and third baseman Bain Pollard each hit an RBI single. The Yankees jumped on the Twins early with two runs on no hits and Bangor-Brewer’s only two errors in the game in the first inning.
The Yankees’ lead was short-lived as Bangor-Brewer stormed back with three runs on three hits and three Downeast errors in the bottom of the first. Two Twin hits and three more Yankee errors in the second put Downeast in a deep hole it never dug out of.
“Yeah, we got some breaks. We hit the ball well and took advantage of the breaks they gave us,” Peckham said.
In the first game, Downeast was well on its way to claiming the playoff trophy as pitcher Troy Brown came on to relieve starter Bill Hodgdon and set down the first two Twins batters – one out to go.
Chad White drew an innocent walk on four pitches before Peckham drilled Brown’s first pitch to the right-field wall for an RBI double – game tied.
Next up was second baseman Ed Vanidestine. Vanidestine continued his hot hitting (3-for-4, double) with a single to left-center that scored Peckham with the winning run.
Peckham led the way with a 335-foot solo home run to left-center and the RBI double. Robbie White had a single, a stolen base, and an RBI. Righthander Alan Perkins pitched a six-hitter for the victory.
For Downeast, Kane smashed a two-run homer 380 feet to dead center. Catcher Bob Perry added an RBI single.
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