LITTLE FALLS, N.J. – The longest drought in the young history of the Bangor Lumberjacks baseball franchise reached 36 innings Sunday as the New Jersey Jackals dealt the Lumberjacks their fourth straight shutout loss.

New Jersey starter Joel Bennett, who pitched against the Bangor Blue Ox in 1996, teamed up with reliever Ben Grezlovski to lead the Jackals to a 2-0 victory at Yogi Berra Stadium.

Bangor, 8-8, wasn’t the only streaking team Sunday, but the 9-8 Jackals are going the other way with 36 2/3 straight innings of shutout ball by their pitching staff. Bangor hasn’t scored a run since the 11th inning of a Wednesday night win.

Individually, Jackals’ leadoff hitter John Anderson extended his hit streak to a Northeast League-best 19 games by going 2-for-4.

Much like the overcast and even dark afternoon that kept threatening rain but never delivered it, the Bangor offense threatened to break its drought several times but could never get anyone home.

Of the nine Bangor runners stranded on base, five were in scoring position.

Bennett (4-1) allowed four hits and had eight strikeouts and four walks in seven innings. Grezlovski allowed three hits in two innings, and had to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth, but work out of it he did.

Todd Brock led Bangor with two singles in four at-bats. Jerry Long was the tough-luck loser despite allowing six hits in six solid innings of work.

New Jersey again got off to a quick start as Anderson continued to give the Lumberjacks pitching staff fits as he hit an 0-2 curve down the left-field line for a single. A flyout later, Darren Blakely ran the count full before pouncing on a fastball from Long and rocketing it down the line and over the fence for a 315-foot, two-run home run – his ninth of the season.

After throwing a 1-2-3 inning in the second, Long had to escape a big jam in the third after yielding hits to two of the first three batters and walking the fourth to load the bases with one out. Long helped himself greatly by picking Blakely off first and then induced a flyout to straightaway left to get out of it.

Bangor missed a chance to break its scoreless-innings streak in the fourth as Brock led off with a single but was caught stealing. A strikeout later, Lorenzo de la Cruz roped one into the right-center-field gap for a single and was well on his way to third or even home after Juan LeBron followed with a shot to the wall in right-center, but center fielder Blakely did it to Bangor again, this time with his glove. Blakely sprinted to the wall and somehow caught the ball while crashing into the netting-covered fence and kept his balance as well as his grip on the ball for the inning-ending play.

JACKALS 2, LUMBERJACKS 0

Bangor (29-32) New Jersey (37-25)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Doakes, cf 3 0 0 0 Anderson, dh 4 1 0

Brock, ss-3b 4 0 2 0 Kerrigan,3b 4 0 0

Ross, dh 3 0 0 0 Blakely, cf 2 1 2

DeLaCruz, rf 4 0 1 0 Glendenning, lf 4 0 0

LeBron, lf 4 0 1 0 Bailey, rf 1 0 0

Burke, 1b 3 0 1 0 McKee, c 3 0 0

Martinez, ss 1 0 0 0 Maxwell, 1b 2 0 0

Saunders, 3b-1b 2 0 1 0 Rowan, ss 3 0 0

Hargreaves, c 3 0 0 0 Conway, 2b 3 0 0

Dworken, ph 1 0 0 0

O?Sullivan, 2b 4 0 0 0

Totals 32 0 6 0 Totals 26 2 7 2

Bangor 000 000 000 ? 0

New Jersey 200 000 00x ? 2

E?Kerrigan; LOB?Bangor 9, New Jersey 5; 2B?Conway; HR?Blakely (9); DP?Bangor 2; Saunders to O?Sullivan to Burke, Brock to O?Sullivan to Burke; New Jersey 1; Rowan to Conway to Maxwell; SB?Doakes 2

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Long (L, 1-4) 6 6 2 2 4 3

Henry 2 1 0 0 1 3

New Jersey IP H R ER BB SO

Bennett (W, 4-1) 7 4 0 0 4 8

Grezlovski 1 0 0 0 0 0

Perez 1 2 0 0 0 0

WP?Long; BK?Henry; PB?Hargreaves; T?2:36; ATT?2,545