LEWISTON – The Brunswick High School baseball team entered Friday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference game against five-time defending State Class A champion Bangor hoping to compete.
After a shaky first inning, the Dragons did that for the most part in an 8-3 setback at Lewiston High School.
After a late 5-2 loss to Cony to open the campaign, Brunswick was able to put together seven hits, with three going for extra bases.
However, Bangor starting pitcher Noah Missbrenner pitched around trouble throughout, going six-plus innings and allowing just one run on four hits, five strikeouts and two walks.
“The first game against Cony, we saw a lot of pitches, took a lot of strikes. This game we needed to swing the bat, and if we were going to go down, let’s go down swinging,” said Brunswick (0-2) coach Craig Rogers, whose Dragons are scheduled to host Lincoln Academy Monday at 4 p.m.
Bangor (1-1) jumped out quickly, scoring four runs on three hits and a walk against Brunswick starter Coenradt Taylor in the first frame. James Neel walked to open the game, and with one out Zac Cowperthwaite drove a Taylor offering to deep center field for an RBI ground-rule double and a 1-0 Rams lead.
After Carson Prouty singled and stole second, Colton Trisch singled to left field to give Bangor a 3-0 edge. Trisch later scored on a Taylor wild pitch as Brunswick came to the plate for the first time trailing 4-0.
The Dragons threatened in the first as Sam Sharpe ripped a triple to right-center field. But Missbrenner picked up his first strikeout to strand Sharpe.
In the second, Sam Masse sent a Missbrenner pitch to the gap in left-center field. He tried to stretch a double into a triple, but Rams shortstop Neel threw a strike to Cowperthwaite at third, who put the tag on Masse.
“There were a few little things, like baserunning, that I wasn’t real pleased with,” said Rogers.
Bangor tacked on a run in the third, with Keegan Cyr picking up an RBI with an infield single as Prouty scored, and the Rams made it a 7-0 contest as Cowperthwaite picked up his third hit, an RBI triple that scored Missbrenner.
“We made mistakes in the Lewiston game (a 6-1 loss) and worked on them in practice, and today we made the plays that we needed to make and were real aggressive at the plate,” said Cowperthwaite, who came up a home run short of the cycle.
Bangor’s final run touched home in the sixth. Caleb Bois (2-for-3) tripled off Brunswick reliever Noah Goddard and scored on a single by Neel.
After walking Taylor to open the seventh, Missbrenner exited the game after throwing 100 pitches. Trisch relieved and the Dragons found their groove at the plate against the lefty to break through. Goddard and Alex Dunton (RBI) both singled, and Cam Dunton doubled to center field as Brunswick drew to 8-3.
Trisch settled down from there to close things out.
Taylor, Goddard and Sharpe combined on the mound for Brunswick (10 hits, four strikeouts, four walks).
“Pitching did well today. There were a lot of positives in this. It is a short, long season. We have something to work on,” Rogers said. “We can’t give the other team four or five outs, and we are trying to find ourselves. We still haven’t been outside a lot, so we will see.”
“Every time we play Brunswick it is a good game and they never quit. We take every team the same way, and Brunswick did well today,” said Cowperthwaite.
Cam Dunton and Masse were 2-for-3 at the plate for the Dragons, while Prouty picked up a pair of hits for Bangor.
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