OLD ORCHARD BEACH — In possibly his last competitive pitching performance, Gardiner’s Spencer Allen had a marvelous farewell. Allen went eight innings and allowed just five hits and two walks.

And yet, Gardiner could not turn that into a win. Bangor’s Curtis Worcester pitched a three-hitter and the Comrades squeezed out a 3-1 victory on the first day of the American Legion baseball state tournament at The Ballpark at Old Orchard Beach.

Gardiner (17-5) falls to the loser’s bracket, and will face Pastime Club (Lewiston) at 12:30 p.m., today. Bangor (20-2) faces First Title at 7 p.m. in a winner’s bracket game.

Worcester struck out nine, including the final two batters of the game. The lefty did his work by getting Gardiner to swing and miss or hit the ball in the air. Gardiner had only two groundouts and one of those was on a sacrifice bunt.

Gardiner scored in the top of the first inning. With one out, Ben Crocker singled and took second on an error. Crocker then went to third on a passed ball and made it 1-0 on a sacrifice fly by Dennis Meehan.

But Worcester and his defense were not that helpful over the remainder of the game. After Crocker’s single, Worcester retired 14 of the next 16 batters. The two Gardiner batters who reached in that stretch were both on errors, and Worcester picked one of them off.

Gardiner did threaten again in the sixth, loading the bases with two outs on two walks and an error. Allen, who played at Husson this spring but is transferring to the University of Michigan, made a good bid, but flied out to the warning track.

In fact, Gardiner did not get its second hit until there were two out in the top of the eighth. Kyle Fletcher and Crocker each singled, but Worcester got out of the inning with a popout.

Allen, who struck out seven, was also stingy. Bangor scored in the second on two errors, and in the sixth on a walk, a single by Brendan Moore and a sac fly by Nic Cota. In the eighth, the Comrades got their third run after two hits and a two-out throwing error.


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