George Stevens nips Jay
BANGOR – It took Josh Armandi about an inning to get warmed up in Monday’s Class C state title game against George Stevens Academy.
Unfortunately for the Jay Tigers, one inning’s worth of runs was all the Eagles needed.
Mark Clapp drove Michael Astbury home in the bottom of the first inning with a hit that could have been ruled an error, and later scored on a Chris Sargent single, again a questionable hit, leading George Stevens to a 2-0 win over Jay at Mansfield Stadium.
Those were the only two hits Armandi allowed. GSA counterpart Dan Hilts held the Tigers at bay, allowing just four hits and forcing numerous fly balls.
“I have no idea what was so strange about his delivery,” Armandi said of Hilts. “I think the fact that he was a lefty and we hadn’t seen that many lefties this season might have had something to do with it.”
Armandi had two hits in his first two at bats before being intentionally walked in his final at-bat.
“We knew from last year that Armandi could hit the ball, and there wasn’t much of a decision to make,” said George Stevens coach Dan Kane. “We figured we’d put the pressure on someone else and see what they could do. It was a gamble that paid off.”
It was a gamble because walking Armandi in the top of the fifth inning loaded the bases for Jay with two out, putting the tying runs in scoring position.
“I was actually kind of upset that they wouldn’t let me go after him,” said Hilts. “I wanted to try and go after him after he had hit me twice.”
“It’s been like that all year,” added Armandi. “I get walked and then the inning ends. It’s just frustrating.”
Not to be overlooked was the Eagles’ solid defense. George Stevens committed no errors and caught all eight fly balls in the final four innings off of the Tigers’ bats.
“It give you confidence to think that you can pitch strikes in there and your defense is just going to swallow the ball up,” said Hilts. “I didn’t have my best stuff today, so I worked on placing the ball and used my curve.”
Jay may best remember the game as one of many lost opportunities. In the first and fifth innings, the Tigers had a runner on third base, and in the second and fourth they had one on second. In all, Jay left eight runners on base despite just four hits.
“We had a few opportunities,” said Jay coach Chris Bessey. “We didn’t capitalize on them, and they did when we gave them some. That was the biggest difference in the game.”
The only runs of the game scored in the top of the first. After a leadoff walk to Astbury, Clapp doubled off of left fielder Shawn Jacques’ glove, scoring Astbury. Clapp advanced to third on Jacques’ throwing error, and scored when Sargent sent a hard single off of third baseman Brandon Purrington’s glove.
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