Hermon baseball team serves notice with win over Old Town

The Hermon Hawks scored the most notable victory of the early Class B North baseball season Thursday night, edging defending state champion Old Town 3-1 to end the Coyotes’ 15-game winning streak.

The game, originally scheduled to be played at Old Town that afternoon, was moved to Mansfield Stadium in Bangor due to wet field conditions.

This was a rematch of last year’s regional championship game that Old Town won 2-0 and was similarly close throughout as Hermon rallied from an early 1-0 deficit to score its second regular-season victory over the Coyotes in as many years.

Hermon handed Old Town its only loss last season, scoring a 2-1 victory over the Coyotes on May 3, 2016, behind the six-hit pitching of Nick Guerrette, now a closer as a freshman at Husson University in Bangor.

Zach Nash, one of only five seniors on the Hermon roster, did the bulk of the pitching work in Thursday night’s clash. The right-hander struck out nine batters and allowed one run on seven hits while throwing 110 pitches — the maximum allowed in a game under the state’s newly implemented pitch-count rule — over 6⅔ innings.

Sophomore Adam Rush then came on with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning and needed just one pitch to record the final out and earn the save.

Hermon won the contest despite managing just one hit, a single by junior Mark Mailloux.

Coach Matt Kinney’s Hawks (3-0) are scheduled to host Caribou in a doubleheader beginning at noon Saturday.

Coach Brad Goody’s OId Town (2-1) and hosts Ellsworth in a single game at noon Saturday.

The two rivals are scheduled to meet again on Friday, May 19, at Hermon.

Ernie Clark

About Ernie Clark

I'm a veteran sportswriter who has worked with the Bangor Daily News for more than a decade. A four-time Maine Sportswriter of the Year as selected by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, my coverage areas range from high school sports to mixed martial arts.