BANGOR — After a day of controversy, Bessey Motors’ bid for a state American Legion baseball title fell a run short on Wednesday night.
Coastal Landscaping rallied to defeat Bessey, 4-3, and win the state title at Husson Coollege.
Bessey endured an emotional day, starting with their pitcher Colton Carson and head coach Shane Slicer being ejected from their first game on Wednesday during the bottom of the first inning (see related story). Bessey was able to defeat Bangor’s Coffee News, which meant a rematch with Coastal, which it defeated on Tuesday.
Emery Chickering pitched well in the first two innings, escaping a jam with two men on in the first, followed by a quick second.
Coastal pitcher James Sinclair pitched a perfect first two innings but ran into trouble in the third.
Wyatt Williamson led off with a single to right field, followed by a single by Brayden Bean. Both runners were moved over on a bunt, followed by Cam Slicer getting on base due to a catcher’s interference which let Williamson score. Bean scored on a grounder and it was 2-0 early for Bessey.
Coastal battled back with all four runs of their own in the bottom half of the third inning. Griffin Watson led off the inning with a hard-hit single to right, followed by a walk from Luc Harrison. Next up was Dylan Francoeur, who singled to load the bases. Tim Greenlaw grounded out but scored Watson and Sinclair scored two more runners.
Down 4-2, Bessey didn’t fold. Even with Chickering on the mound, who has thrown, in assistant coach Lance Bean’s estimation, one relief inning this summer, it kept fighting.
In the fifth, Cam Slicer reached base on a single and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Rodney Bean to cut the deficit to one. However, Sinclair buckled down and shut out Bessey for the next two innings.
“He is the heart and soul of the team,” Coastal coach Dan McCarthy said. “He pitched a couple innings earlier in the tournament and we were saving him for this big day.”
Slicer came in in relief in the sixth inning to take over for Chickering and got out of a bases loaded jam.
“I don’t think anyone expected us to be here in this game,” Bessey assistant coach Lance Bean said. “These kids fight so hard and they play the game the way it’s supposed to be played and hopefully things happen. Our defense carried us, we had great pitching from guys who didn’t pitch a lot. When we knew Colton wasn’t throwing we had guys asking for the ball. What more can you ask for?”
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