Bangor Bounces All-Stars From World Series

BANGOR, Maine — The Manhattan Beach Senior League All-Stars saw their dreams of a world championship dashed Friday by an unflappable host team.

The Maine District 3 champions from Bangor rallied from a three-run deficit to upset the previously unbeaten Mustangs 9-3 in a Senior League World Series semifinal played before 1,900 partisan fans at Mansfield Stadium.

The win puts Bangor into the world final on Saturday against San Nicolas, Aruba, which defeated South Vineland, N.J., 3-2, in the ther semifinal.

"The crowd always helps," said Manhattan Beach manager Carlos Rojas, who saw his team's 19-game winning streak ended. "I'm not making excuses whatsoever, but we haven't played in front of a crowd like this before. I personally was a little jittery, I dropped my clipboard a couple of times, but it is what it is. It was a phenomenal experience for my boys."

The Mustangs jumped on Bangor starter Curtis Worcester for three runs on four hits in the top of the first inning, but were silenced by the left-hander the rest of the way.

Worcester scattered seven hits in six innings while striking out five batters and walking two before giving way to Luke Hetterman, who pitched a scoreless seventh.

"His changeup was pretty decent," Manhattan Beach first baseman Turner Conrad said, of Worcester. "He got me off balance a couple of times with changeups low and away after throwing the fastball. His curveball wasn't doing much in the early innings but then it started breaking off the plate. He used his changeup pretty well to keep us off balance."

Consecutive singles by Austin Henning, Conrad and Bret Collins gave Manhattan Beach a 1-0 lead before Worcester had recorded an out, then Ian McLoughlin followed with a one-out double off the right-field fence to extend the lead to 3-0.

"They came out very strong," Worcester said. "It wasn't like we were making stupid mistakes, they were hitting the ball and got on the board first, but we didn't let it bother us."

Worcester settled down, blending a fastball, changeup and curveball into a mix that Manhattan Beach wasn't able to solve.

"We came out hitting and put three on the board early and thought we were in good shape," Rojas said. "But after that, [Worcester] had us off-balance, and you give credit where credit is due.

"Today was one of those days where we thought we figured it out in the first inning, but we didn't get anything after that."

Manhattan Beach left-hander Anthony Lombardo, meanwhile, struggled with his control throughout—walking six batters before reaching his 95-pitch limit after just 4 1/3 innings—and Bangor made him pay in the top of the third.

Worcester drew a leadoff walk, and special pinch-runner Wyatt Frost scored when Hetterman drove a triple to deep right field. Hetterman then scored on a wild pitch to pull Bangor within 3-2.

Bangor took the lead for good in the fifth when cleanup batter Anthony Capuano blasted a three-run homer to right off Mustangs' reliever Carter Casady.

"On a 3-1 count I was just looking for my pitch, and he gave it to me," Capuano said. "It was middle-in, exactly what I like."

Bangor blew the game open an inning later with a four-run rally highlighted by Christian Corneil's two-run single.

Collins and Lombardo had two singles each to pace Manhattan Beach's eight-hit attack.

Rojas said he was proud of his team and the 19-game win streak.

"This has been a great experience for us, and I told the boys there's nothing to hang their heads about," Rojas said. "Our Senior League's only been in existence for two years and we made it this far, so we have our work cut out to work harder to put something together so hopefully we can make it back here to Bangor. It's been a phenomenal experience."