ORONO – Maybe it was Sunday afternoon’s postgame verbal assault by manager Kash Beauchamp, or maybe it was just time for the hits to start falling for Bangor. Either way, the result was a dramatic 4-3 Bangor win over Brockton in 10 innings at Mahaney Diamond Monday night.
Donnie Ross started things off by singling through the left side of the infield on a 1-1 pitch in the bottom of the 10th. Juan LeBron, who has been on fire at the plate for Bangor the last two weeks, scored him all the way from first with a double down the left field line.
“Yeah, that’s probably the fastest I’ve ever run. I think I might have had a tailwind behind me,” joked the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Ross.
LeBron had two of Bangor’s seven hits, both doubles, and two RBIs. His hit in the 10th made a winner out of righthanded reliever Orlando Woodards, who pitched a scoreless 10th for his first decision with Bangor.
“He threw me a breaking ball high and I was swinging,” LeBron said. “I hadn’t played for 21/2 weeks before coming here and I wasn’t hitting well at first, but I feel ready now.”
The stats say he’s more than ready. He’s hitting .400 with two home runs and four RBIs in his last five games.
“We have lost a lot of games lately and we did better today, playing harder and with more energy,” LeBron said, when asked how Sunday’s closed-door meeting affected the team.
Bangor is now 10-12 and Brockton evens out at 11-11.
Brockton tied the game in the ninth when Mike Davis hit a one-out double to left-center and Nestor Smith roped a two-out double to dead center off reliever Jeff Sparks.
Bangor got off to a quick start the day after getting the dressing-down from Beauchamp in a closed-door meeting following Sunday’s loss.
Schuyler Doakes led off the first inning with a walk, went to second on a groundout, third on a flyout, and home on LeBron’s double to the left-center field gap. A walk later, LeBron scored on Lorenzo de la Cruz’s single through the shortstop hole.
Brockton cut its deficit in half with a run in the third. Mike Davis drew a leadoff walk, stole second, and scored two outs later on Francisco Matos’ double to right-center.
In the fifth, the Rox tied it with a one-out single by Smith, a two-out single by Saul Bustos, and Mike Torres’ single to center.
The ‘Jacks retook the lead in the sixth after Ross started things off with a leadoff walk. A flyout later, Ross stole second on a hit-and-run before moving to third on a Mark Burke single up the middle. Ross scored on a fielder’s choice grounder.
Bangor had a chance to keep adding runs after two more walks loaded the bases, but starter Mike Marchesano escaped with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Nick Saunders.
Jeff Sparks turned in a solid four innings of relief after a long layoff, allowing three hits.
LUMBERJACKS 4, ROX 3
Brockton (11-11) Bangor (10-12)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
Smith, cf 5 1 2 1 Doakes, cf-2b 4 1 0
Matos, dh 4 0 3 1 Hargreaves, c 3 0 0
Bustos, ss 5 0 1 0 Ross, 3b 4 2 0
Torres, lf-rf 5 0 2 1 LeBron, lf 4 2
Rosario, c 4 0 0 0 Burke, 1b 3 0 0
Lewis, 1b 5 0 0 0 de la Cruz, rf 4 0 2
Daubert, 3b 4 0 1 0 Dworken, dh-c 3 0 0
Davis, 2b 3 2 1 0 Brock, ss 3 0 0
Medina, rf 3 0 0 0 O’Sullivan, 2b 2 0 0
Arroyo, lf 1 0 0 0 Saunders, ph 1 0 0
Tindell, cf 1 0 0 0
Totals 39 3 10 3 Totals 32 4 7 4
Brockton 001 010 001 0 ? 3
Bangor 200 001 000 1 ? 4
LOB?Rox 9, Lumberjacks 9; 2B?Smith, Matos 2, Davis, LeBron; DP?Woodards to Brock to Burke; S?Hargreaves; SB?Rosario, Davis, Hargreaves, Ross
Brockton IP H R ER BB SO
Marchesano 6 4 3 3 6 3
Jones 2 1 0 0 1 3
Brooks (L, 0-4) 1 2 1 1 0 1
Bangor IP H R ER BB SO
Bowe 3 2/3 3 1 1 2 2
Kalinowski 1 1/3 3 1 1 0 1
Sparks 4 3 1 1 1 1
Woodards (W, 1-0) 1 1 0 0 0 0
T?3:05; ATT?789
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