BANGOR — Errors, both the variety that are posted on the far, right end of the scoreboard and the less tangible type, plagued Pastime Club again Friday afternoon.

This time it hastened the journey’s end in the American Legion baseball state tournament, a 6-2 loss to Post 51 of Oakland at Winkin Complex.

Jake Dexter was 3-for-4 with two RBIs for Post 51. Right-hander Patrick Breton carried a shutout into the seventh inning, while Post 51 took full advantage of its early opportunities against Pastime ace Ryan Riordan. A.J. Godin mopped up in the ninth, allowing Pastime’s second run.

Carter Chabot, Alex Small, Caleb Dostie and Matt Poulin each had two hits to lead Pastime, which out-hit Post 51, 9-8.

“It was mistakes where we didn’t minimize the damage. If we hold them to less than five runs in the first three innings, then we have a chance,” Pastime manager Dave Jordan said. “With the five runs, against a pitcher of that caliber with the defense they have, it’s hard to overcome.”

Zone 2 tournament champion Post 51 (12-12) has won back-to-back games and advances to a rematch of its opening-day loss to Bessey Motors at noon on Saturday.

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Pastime Club, which was bidding for its third state title in five years, ends its Zone 3 championship season at 17-7.

The Lewiston-based squad, which also features players from St. Dom’s, Lisbon and Oak Hill, was charged with four errors in each of its two losses, not including a flurry of other “that’s baseball” moments where catchable balls fell in or close calls went the other way.

Pastime wasted an enormous opportunity after the lower portion of its order produced three consecutive singles in the second.

Chabot and Small lashed line drives to center field, and Dostie reached on a textbook bunt down the first base line.

After fighting off several would-be third strikes into foul ground, Poulin floated a fly ball that was deep enough to score Chabot, who slid home with Pastime’s apparent first run.

Post 51 appealed, however. Breton tossed to Josh Woodard at third. Woodard tagged the bag and the umpire declared Chabot out, ruling that he left the bag before the catch.

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“Our bench actually said that the guy left early,” Breton said. “Coach told me to step off and throw it to third. The guy called him out, and that was a big relief for me.”

Breton struck out R.J. Sargent swinging to end the threat with runners at second and third.

Jordan was coaching third on the play.

“I had it lined up behind my base runner. The rule says it has to hit hands. It doesn’t have to be a catch, so when I saw it hit, I had him run,” he said. “I don’t know. It was a big momentum swing. It took us a little while to recover.”

That letdown came on the heels of a two-out uprising by Post 51 in the bottom of the first.

Devin Warren’s hustle down the line forced a rushed throw for an error that extended the inning. Zach Mathieu followed with a walk. Dexter then launched a lazy fly ball that, in an eerie flashback to Thursday night’s Pastime loss to Bangor, tailed toward the right field line away from the fielder.

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Dexter wound up with a two-run double.

Post 51 made it 3-0 in the second. Woodard was hit by a pitch and Reid Nutter drew a walk. The pair advanced on a wild pitch, and Riordan’s barehanded bid wasn’t enough to deny Cody Martin an RBI infield single.

In the third, singles by Dexter, Ben Frazee and Nutter led to two more runs. Woodard plated one with a sacrifice fly. Frazee scored the other from second base on a wild pitch and a throwing error.

“When I see us get some runs up on the board, it just gives me confidence to go out there and pitch my game,” Breton said.

Riordan found his rhythm thereafter, retiring nine consecutive Post 51 batters beginning with Trevor Gettig’s bounce out to end the third.

But Breton was equally stingy, retiring eight without a blemish between the second and fifth. Poulin was stranded at second after a single and stolen base in the fifth, and Gettig threw out Mike Wong attempting to steal to end the sixth.

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Breton, who struck out two and didn’t issue a walk, said his last eight-inning stint was a Junior Legion game in 2012.

“I knew I had to have a long outing, because we lost the first game,” he said. “We’re not hurting on pitching, but we’ve got to save some arms.”

Pastime broke up the shutout in the seventh but only mustered one run out of four consecutive singles.

Small’s seeing-eye stroke to left, Dostie’s bunt single and Poulin and Austin Wing’s line drives to right put Pastime on the board. Dostie tried to make it two runs on the Wing hit, though, and Post 51 rang him up by a shoestring, 9-3-2, for the second out.

First baseman Adam Littlefield made a leaping grab of Cote’s rising smash to douse another rally.

“We had some plays that were really close, and in terms of being safe or out, it’s what you see,” Jordan said. “Caleb Dostie made one of the most fantastic slides I’ve seen all year. The catcher had the plate blocked pretty good. He reached around and tagged it on the way by, and it just wasn’t a good angle.”

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Littlefield roped an RBI single in the bottom of the inning.

Pinch runner Brady Cusson rounded the bases after Chabot’s leadoff single in the ninth. Dostie delivered the RBI.

Riordan, a 19-year-old postgraduate, allowed eight hits, struck out six and walked two.

“Ryan pitched fantastic,” Jordan said. “Last time on the bump, you couldn’t ask for anything better. I’m happy that he was able to go out with a good performance.”

It capped a season that almost didn’t happen. Jordan only welcomed eight players to the initial tryout.

“We recruited some guys,” he said. “I just told them, some of the guys that didn’t play quite as much, that they were key for us. We wouldn’t have been able to field a team if they hadn’t shown up.”


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