Kemble allowed a one-out, infield single in the bottom of the first inning on a slow roller to shortstop Kyle Stevenson, whose high throw to first likely wouldn’t have beaten Evan Cox to the bag. Kemble recovered and retired the next 10 batters in a dominant outing.
“My fastball worked pretty well, and my curveball came as the game went on,” Kemble said.
Kemble, a junior, ran into trouble in the fifth, loading the bases with two outs thanks to a pair of walks and a single by Brady Cusson. A lazy fly ball to center ended the threat.
“That’s where you have to focus in. You have to,” Kemble said of the bases-loaded situation. “You just focus, throw strikes and let your defense make plays.”
Kemble made it one batter into the sixth, but was lifted for Jesse Colford after walking Austin Wing.
The Rams (2-0) gave their starter more than enough run support to pick up the win. The two-time defending class A state champions scored single runs in the second and fourth, then plated three runs in the fifth.
Five of Bangor’s six runs came with two outs.
“It’s pretty typical for us really. We’re not going to be a big offensive team, but we’re going to take advantage of the other team’s mistakes, which we did a little bit today,” Bangor coach Jeff Fahey said. “We’re pretty good up and down the lineup, so two outs we don’t really hesitate we just keep trying to do what we do.”
Ben Crichton got the offense going with a hard single past third to score Colford in the second. Consecutive two-out doubles by Jacob Ireland and Ryan Brookings in the fourth drove in a second run.
The Rams knocked out Blue Devils (0-2) starter Cusson in the fifth. Three straight two-out singles, the last of which came off Ireland’s bat, was the end of the line for Cusson, who “battled” through his 4 2-3 innings, according to Lewiston coach Will Emerson.
“I thought he competed for the first start of the year, against a really tough team at home,” Emerson said of Cusson. “He gave us a chance.”
Cusson tried to rectify his outing on the mound by collecting the second of two hits off Kemble in the fifth. That was followed by a sacrifice bunt from Corey Harvey and a walk drawn by Hunter Landry to load the bases. The Kemble retired Cox on a fly to center.
The Blue Devils loaded the bases again in the sixth, but Colford did the same thing Kemble did — close the door. Colford struck out Jack LeBlond to shut down Lewiston’s last threat.
“We didn’t have that timely hitting,” Emerson said. “Today it hurt us. You got to tip your cap to their pitchers, who didn’t allow that to happen. They won those battles where we needed to do a better job of getting those guys in.”
Those two fruitless, bases-full opportunities were sandwiched around a fruitful top of the sixth for Bangor. Nick Cowperthwaite hit a grounder under Cox’ glove to score Stevenson. The two-out run came a batter after Landry made a sliding catch in center with Stevenson in scoring position.
Gary Farnham closed out the Bangor win by striking out two against one walk in the seventh.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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