BREWER – Through 61/2 innings, the script was all too familiar to veteran Bangor and Brewer baseball fans.
Both teams’ aces in control on the mound, runs hard to come by, team that makes least costly mistakes wins. Thursday night, Bangor led 1-0 after Brewer committed one fielding error and two baserunning mistakes resulting in runners thrown out at the plate. Everyone could see how this story was going to end.
Maybe the softball players brought some of karma they’ve used to beat Bangor three times in last at-bat rallies with them down the hill, maybe not. Whatever the reason, the Witches rallied for a run in the seventh and eighth and walked away with a 2-1 win over the Rams at Heddericg Field.
“This is a real big win … Huge,” said pitcher Andrew Patterson, whose right arm pitched the 14-2 Witches past the 13-3 Rams.
“That’s the best he’s ever thrown against us,” said Rams coach Jeff Fahey. “He was throwing strikes, getting ahead in the count, and mixing pitches well. We hit him, but not hard enough and not when we had to.”
Patterson (4-1) allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out eight while throwing 75 of his 113 pitches (66.4 percent) for strikes.
“At first the curveball was working awesome, but then it kind of got a little away from me with my location,” said the senior. “I think in the seventh my fastball got a little more pop on it, and I felt stronger.”
Patterson’s shining moment came in the fifth, ironically the only inning Bangor scored. After Mike LaRochelle led off with a triple and scored on a fielding error, the Rams loaded the bases before Patterson retired the middle of Bangor’s order on two infield popups and a flyout to right.
“We had our 3-4-5 guys coming up and Patterson shut them down,” Fahey said. “He battled, he didn’t want to lose his last game at home and it showed.”
Brewer finally broke into the scoring column in the seventh. Kevin McAvoy (3-for-3) led off with a single to left center and went to second on a wild pitch. After a groundout pushed him over to third, he scored on Jeff Miller’s triple down the right- field line. Rams starter Josh Young then escaped the jam by cutting down Miller at home on a fielder’s choice grounder and then catching Matt Grimes trying to advance to second.
Mitchell Peasley drew Young’s lone walk to lead off the eighth and then stole second. Young notched a strikeout, but then No. 9 hitter J.T. Davis pushed an infield single through the right side of the drawn-in infield and then stole second to take away a possible double play. Andy Otis ran the count full before slapping a seeing-eye single through the right side infield hole and scoring Peasley with the winning run.
“I was just looking for something to drive to the right side, preferably in the air, but the ground ball worked,” Otis said.
WITCHES 2, RAMS 1 (8 inn.)
Bangor (13-3) Brewer (14-2)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
Hall, lf 4 0 1 0 Otis, dh 4 0 1
N.LaRochelle,2b 3 0 1 0 Cushing, 2b 0 0
Dowe, c 4 0 0 0 Patterson, p 3 0 0
Hackett, 3b 4 0 2 0 McAvoy, 3b 3 1 0
Toomey, pr 0 0 0 0 Kotredes, 1b 3 0 0
Young, p 4 0 0 0 Miller, cf 3 0 1
DeRosa, dh 4 0 2 0 Grimes, lf 3 0 0
Ingraham, rf 0 0 0 0 Peasley, c 2 1 0
Prentiss, cf 3 0 0 0 B. Davis, rf 3 0 0
Murphy, ph 1 0 0 0 J.T.Davis, ss 3 0 0
M.LaRochelle,1b 4 1 1 0
Heath, ss 3 0 0 0
Totals 34 1 7 0 Totals 27 2 6 2
Bangor 000 010 00 ? 1
Brewer 000 000 11 ? 2
E?Heath; J.T. Davis, McAvoy; LOB?Bangor 10; Brewer 4; 2B?McAvoy; 3B?M. LaRochelle; Miller; SB?Toomey; Peasley, Davis
Bangor IP H R ER BB SO
Young (L, 4-1) 7 1/3 6 2 2 1 5
Brewer IP H R ER BB SO
Patterson (W,4-1) 8 7 1 0 1 8
WP?Young; PB?Peasley; T?1:51; ATT?250 (est.)
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