Pastime belted 11 hits and Kyle Bourget went the distance on the mound, striking out 11, in an 11-1 victory in eight innings. Pastime will enter the state tournament in Augusta as the Zone 2 champion and Rogers will also advance to the state tournament as the Zone 2 runner-up.
The State Tournament begins next Wednesday.
“Just to finish the zone 21-0, (our kids) deserve a lot of credit,” Pastime coach Jake Brown said. “They came ready to play everyday. They had fun with it and we were mentally there for every single game, no matter who we played. Whether it was a bottom team in the league or it was Rogers. It’s a great team to coach. Now we are going to to get ready for states, clean up some stuff defensively. That was a good team we just beat.
Brown went onto mention he’s making sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to bunt coverages and remind the team of the basics.
Despite already having a spot in the state tournament coming into the game, Rogers Post wanted to win; all three losses prior to Wednesday’s final were against Pastime.
“If you are going to play a game, you got to play to win,” Rogers Post coach Dave Jordan said. “We went into it with the guys we had, if we made plays and did what we needed to do, we knew we could put ourselves in a position to win. I think we did make some plays, unfortunately we didn’t make enough right off the bat. They were able to capitalize and put us in a hole.”
Pastime jumped out to a 5-0 in the bottom the first inning. Gage Cote led off the inning with a single that dropped into center field as Mason Brushwein’s diving effort just came up short. Cote moved to third on a balk. After Brock Belanger walked and stole second, Cote scored on a Hunter Landry ground out. Austin Wing’s double brought home Belanger. After Bourget and Mitch Davis reached base on a walk and hit-by-pitch, Eddie Turgeon cleared the bases with a double to bring home runs three through five.
“My role has been mainly pinch running and fielding,” Turgeon said. “I really haven’t gotten a whole lot of bats this year. It was nice to hit well this week.”
Turgeon earned the start in center field since he has been swinging a hot bat. On Tuesday, in the win against Gardiner, he had three hits, including two doubles.
“Talk about a kid who shows up every day, he may not be in the lineup,” Brown said. “We always talk about you are going to get that opportunity and you have to take advantage when you get that opportunity. The last couple of weeks he had some great at-bats in the cage and he got hot at the right time. He deserved to be in the lineup for this playoff run.”
Both pitchers got into a rhythm in the second as Bourget and Roger’s starter Tyler Blanchard each recorded a 1-2-3 inning. Bourget struck out two and Blanchard relied on his defense for all three outs.
Rogers (17-4) recorded its lone run in the top of the fourth as Drew Lashua led the inning off with a double to center. Grant Hartley also had a double to score Lashua. Hartley was thrown out going to third on Maxx Bell’s grounder to the short stop. Instead of going to first, Cote went to third for the out.
“We were starting to pick away a little bit, we got some guys in scoring position, we just didn’t get enough of them in” Jordan said. “If we got three or four runs, maybe it would have been a different game.”
It was the only time in the game when Bourget faced more than four batters in an inning. The former Lisbon High School player, who just completed his freshman season at Husson University in Bangor, had three innings where he struck out two more batters. One of those innings, the fifth, he set down the side in order.
“(Belanger) did a great job calling pitches at the right time,” Bourget said. “He pretty much read my mind on what I was going to throw.”
After three scoreless innings by Blanchard, Pastime tacked on three more in the fifth. Landry’s rope down the third-base line stayed fair for a double. Wing worked a walk. Bourget double scored Landry and Wing. Mitch Davis double brought home Bourget.
Pastime scored two more in the sixth. Belanger singled, stole second. He moved to third on a Landry’s single. Landry stole second and both scored on Wing’s single. Wing moved to second on the throw home from center.
The game almost ended in the seventh via the mercy rule, but Nick Lerette was stranded after pinch running for Davis, who lead the inning off with a single. In the eighth, Pastime got the job done as Belanger doubled and moved to third on Landry’s fly out. Wing hit a sac fly to end the game.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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