Pastime Club catcher Brock Belanger catches a pop fly in the first inning of Sunday’s American Legion state tournament game against Coastal Landscape. (Randy Whitehouse/Sun Journal)
BANGOR — A pair of first-pitch RBI doubles by Princehoward Barbecue Yee was all Coastal Landscape needed to send Pastime Club into the elimination bracket of the American Legion baseball state tournament Sunday.
Yee ripped those doubles as part of an 18-hit Coastal attack in an 8-3 victory over Pastime at the Winkins Sports Complex on the campus of Husson University.
Coastal will face the winner of Sunday night’s game between Bessey Motors and Coffee News at 7 p.m. on Monday. Pastime will face Yankee Ford in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Monday.
Yee (3-for-4, four RBIs), a switch-hitting catcher, didn’t complicate things when he stepped into the batters box in the second and sixth innings with a pair of runners on. He just jumped on the first fastball he saw each time, which each time happened to be the first pitch he saw.
“To be honest, there was no game plan, just hit the ball hard,” Yee said.
“He’s feeling comfortable at the plate,” Coastal coach Dan McCarthy. “He’s a switch-hitter and he’s been going up to bat lefthanded, but we switched him around at USM a few games back and he’s got, like, 14 hits with a home run since. He’s killing it.”
Griffin Watson added four hits and scored three runs for Coastal, while Dylan Francoeur knocked three hits and drove in a pair of runs.
Hunter Richardson, Jack LeBlond and Evan Cox had two hits apiece for Pastime, which had 10 hits of its own but stranded 10 baserunners.
“The difference in the game is they got the hits with runners in scoring position and we didn’t,” Pastime coach Jake Brown said. “We had chances all game to get those hits and we didn’t.”
After stranding a runner in the first inning against Pastime starter Hunter Landry, Coastal quickly stirred up trouble again in the second with a double by James Sinclair and a single by Luke Hill, putting runners at the corners.
Yee followed with his first double to left to drive both home before he was thrown out attempting to sneak to third base.
Coastal loaded the bases with one out in the third. Landry plunked Sinclair to plate Watson, then surrendered an RBI single to Hill to end his outing with a 4-0 deficit.
Owen Cox relieved Landry and ended the damage there, at least temporarily. Luc Harrison’s RBI single made it 5-0 in the fourth.
Coastal starter Francoeur allowed four hits and a walk before being lifted at 60 pitches with one out in the fourth. Pastime stranded a pair of runners in that frame against reliever Tanner Bernier, after leaving two on base in the second and third innings against Francoeur.
“I think that was crucial,” Yee said. “If (Francoeur) didn’t get out of those jams, it would have been a different ballgame.”
Pastime finally broke through in the fifth thanks to two-out RBI singles by LeBlond and Lucas Francis to cut the deficit to 5-2. But Coastal answered in the sixth with Yee’s second two-run double, this time with two out.
“Our offense is on right now,” Yee said.
“What I like about it is even our outs are loud,” McCarthy said. “They’re hitting it on the button. We’re not even getting a chance to do any stealing because they’re hitting early in the count.”
Pastime added an RBI double by Hunter Richardson in the sixth. Watson, who allowed the double but picked up the win with 1 2/3 innings of relief, closed it out in the seventh to put Pastime in a must-win situation the rest of the tournament.
“Now it’s all about getting to the next day,” Brown said. “We have the arms to keep on going. It’s really all about are we going to get those clutch hits when we need to and make sure that we’re not trying to do anything differently at the plate.”
Coastal Landscape’s Luc Harrison retreats to first as Pastime Club first baseman Nick Lerette fields a throw from left field during the first inning of Sunday’s American Legion state tournament game in Bangor. (Randy Whitehouse/Sun Journal)Coastal Landscape second baseman James Sinclair attempts to turn a double play as Pastime Club’s Evan Cox slides into second during the second inning of Sunday’s American Legion state tournament game in Bangor. (Randy Whitehouse/Sun Journal)Pastime Club’s Gordon Beckham swings at a pitch during the second inning of Sunday’s American Legion state tournament game against Coastal Landscape in Bangor. (Randy Whitehouse/Sun Journal)Pastime Club’s Jack LeBlond leads off of second base as Coastal Landscaping shortstop Griffin Watson gets into fielding position during the second inning of Sunday’s American Legion state tournament game in Bangor. (Randy Whitehouse/Sun Journal)
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