ORONO – The Bangor Blue Ox had a better weekend at the ticket window than they did on the field.

A total of 2,843 fans watched the Adirondack Lumberjacks knock off the Blue Ox 4-2 on Saturday and 4-0 on Sunday.

Bangor drops to 1-2 after its opening series in the second half of the Northeast League season and Adirondack improves to 2-1.

Sunday afternoon, Boston Red Sox castoff Darell Tillman mowed down the Bangor lineup for four innings and three Adirondack relievers combined to throw a four-hit shutout over the last five to give the ‘Jacks the win in the rubber game of the three-game series.

“What can you do? Hats off to them. They shut us down,” said Bangor manager Roger LaFrancois. “They way they were throwing, we couldn’t do anything.”

Despite working on a no-hitter, Tillman was lifted from the game after the fourth because of recurring muscle spasms in his throwing shoulder.

“I was surprised I went four to tell you the truth. My plan was just to go two or three,” said Tillman, who said he has been injured since he joined the team a month ago.

His discomfort didn’t show much as he used a running fastball to stifle the Blue Ox bats. The 24-year-old lefthander threw 35 of his 55 pitches for strikes and walked no one while facing the minimum 12 batters in four innings.

“I was fine. In between innings, it was tightening up a little bit, but other than that, I was fine,” he said. “This is my first time pitching since the middle of May.”

Tillman, who went 7-6 with a 3.20 ERA with the Class A Sarasota Red Sox last year, was released by Boston this spring.

Tony Sirianni pitched the fifth and sixth and notched the win.

“It’s a big feather in our cap to get two out of three here. Anytime you win a series on the road, you’re real fortunate,” said ‘Jacks manager Dave Holt.

For the first time in the series, Adirondack scored first. With two outs in the second, Tom Salvagio reached on an error, moved to third on Brian Moeglin’s single to right, and scored on Steve Flanigan’s single to shallow right.

Flanigan (3-for-4 Sunday) went 4-for-7 in the three-game series.

The ‘Jacks made it 3-0 in the top of the third as Kelly Kingston drew a leadoff walk and scored after Joe Lewis and Ray DeLeon followed him with back-to-back singles. Lewis scored on Ron Reams’ sacrifice fly to left.

Kingston made it 4-0 in the seventh by leading off with a homer, his 11th of the season.

Saturday night, the ‘Jacks got their second straight strong performance from a starting pitcher as Chad Ward scattered seven hits over 7 2/3 innings, struck out nine, and walked none.

“Every time he goes out there, he keeps us in the game and he did the same thing tonight against a good hitting ballclub,” said Holt.

Ward credited a reliable changeup pitch for Saturday’s success.

“Just being unpredictable with it – throwing it every first pitch and trying to work in and out with my fastball – was key,” said Ward.

Hugh Walker got the Blue Ox on the board first with a one-out solo home run in the bottom of the fourth. Walker ripped a 1-2 offering from Ward over the Dunkin’ Donuts sign in dead right.

Adirondack sent 10 batters to the plate and erupted for four runs in the top of the sixth.

After Kingston led off with a double and Lewis grounded out, four straight batters reached base. Alex Sutherland, Reams, and Salvagio each delivered RBI singles and another run scored on first baseman Gabe Duross’ throwing error to home plate.

The Blue Ox narrowly avoided a fifth run by retiring Kingston on a throw to first after a muffed strikeout. Holt argued the third strike was actually fouled, but home plate umpire Glen Guerriero ruled it was a dropped third strike and no run scored.

Bangor got one run back in the seventh after Chad White led off with a double and took third when the throw back to the infield got away Lewis at short. One out later, Duross atoned for his error by roping an RBI single to right center.

Lumberjacks 4, Blue Ox 2

(Saturday’s Game)

Adirondack Bangor

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Kingston, cf 4 1 1 0 Ekelund, 3b 4 0 0 0

Lewis, ss 4 0 0 0 Hine, 2b 4 0 0 0

DeLeon, 1b 4 1 0 0 Walker, lf 4 1 2 1

Sutherland, c 5 1 2 1 Morrow, rf 4 0 1 0

Doucette, dh 2 1 0 0 White, ss 4 1 1 0

Pallitto, dh 0 0 0 0 Ramsey, cf 4 0 0 0

Reams, lf 3 0 2 1 Duross, 1b 4 0 2 1

Davila, 2b 3 0 0 0 Bussey, pr 0 0 0 0

Salvagio, rf 3 0 1 1 Nunez, c 4 0 1 0

Moeglin, 3b 3 0 0 0 Dionne, dh 2 0 0 0

Mota, dh 1 0 1 0

Totals 31 4 6 3 Totals 35 2 8 2

Adirondack (1-1) 000 004 000 – 4

Bangor (1-1) 000 100 100 – 2

E – Lewis; Duross 2B – Kingston 3B – White HR – Walker LOB – Lumberjacks 9, Blue Ox 6 SB – DeLeon SF – Lewis, Reams

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Adirondack

Ward (W, 6-3) 7 2/3 7 2 2 0 9

Murphy (S, 2) 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 1

Bangor

Christmas (L, 6-2) 5 2/3 6 4 1 3 5

Hreben 2 1/3 0 0 0 2 5

Quinn 2/3 0 0 0 0 1

Macone 1/3 0 0 0 1 0

HBP – Kingston by Christmas WP – Hreben TIME – 2:44 ATTENDANCE – 1,218

Lumberjacks 4, Blue Ox 0

(Sunday’s Game)

Adirondack Bangor

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Kingston, cf 4 2 1 1 Ekelund, 3b 4 0 0 0

Lewis, ss 5 1 1 0 Hine, 2b 3 0 0 0

DeLeon, 1b 4 0 1 1 Bussey, rf 1 0 1 0

Reams, lf 3 0 0 1 Walker, lf 4 0 1 0

Davila, lf 0 0 0 0 Morrow, rf 2 0 0 0

Doucette, dh 4 0 0 0 White, rf-ss 2 0 0 0

Salvagio, rf 3 1 0 0 Ramsey, cf 4 0 0 0

Moeglin, 3b 4 0 1 0 Nunez, dh 3 0 0 0

Flanigan, c 4 0 3 1 Mota, c 3 0 1 0

Pallitto, 2b 3 0 0 0 Dionne, 1b 3 0 1 0

Murray, ss-2b 2 0 0 0

Totals 34 4 7 4 Totals 31 0 4 0

Adirondack (2-1) 012 000 100 – 4

Bangor (1-2) 000 000 000 – 0

E – Lewis, Moeglin; Mota, Murray LOB – Lumberjacks 8, Blue Ox 5 SB – Flanigan SF – DeLeon, Reams

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Adirondack

Tillman 4 0 0 0 0 3

Sirianni (W, 1-0) 2 1 0 0 1 3

Breitenstein 1 1 0 0 0 0

Marik 2 2 0 0 0 4

Bangor

Hartmann (L, 4-4) 8 7 4 3 3 9

Davis 1 0 0 0 0 0

WP – Hartmann BK – Hartmann TIME – 2:26 ATTENDANCE – 1,625