Old Town defeats Hermon in Class B North baseball final – Bangor Daily News

BANGOR, Maine — The Old Town baseball team capped off a historic day for the school’s athletic program in riveting fashion Wednesday evening.

Just hours after the Old Town softball team won its Class B North championship, the top-ranked Coyotes scratched out two fifth-inning runs to back the two-hit pitching of Kaleb Gifford and claim their first title since 1993 with a 2-0 victory over No. 3 Hermon in their regional final at Mansfield Stadium.

“They’re motivated, they wanted to get here,” said Old Town coach Brad Goody, whose 18-1 squad will face Freeport — a 3-1 winner over Cape Elizabeth in the Class B South final — here in the state championship game at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“They don’t know about the ‘93 team; none of them were born then,” he added.

Gifford, who threw a perfect game against Belfast in the quarterfinals, struck out three batters and walked three while outdueling Penobscot Valley Conference Class B pitcher and player of the year Nick Guerrette, who also pitched a two-hitter.

“I get out there and just pitch my game,” said Gifford. “I do the best I can do, and my team backs me up.”

Key to Gifford’s success was working ahead in the count. The right-hander threw 18 first-pitch strikes to the 24 batters he faced during a 96-pitch effort.

“Obviously he didn’t pitch as well as his last time out because he was perfect then,” said Goody. “But that’s fine. He knows with our defense that he can just pump strikes, and he pounded the zone. and we made the plays.”

Led by shortstop Drew Coulombe, third baseman Ethan Stoddard and catcher Cole Daniel, Old Town backed Gifford with errorless defense. Coulombe and Stoddard each had five assists, and Daniel picked one runner off first base and threw out a second trying to steal.

“I thought we hit the ball pretty decent, they made the plays,” said Hermon coach Matt Kinney, whose team concluded its season at 14-5. “If you hit the ball and they make the plays, it usually doesn’t go your way. You have to tip your hat that they played good defense and [Gifford] threw strikes.”

Guerrette required just 64 pitches during his six-inning stint with two strikeouts and no walks, and took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fifth before Austin Sheehan hit a one-out single to right and Gifford beat out a slow chopper to third base for an infield hit.

A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, then T.J. Crawford grounded to second base and Sheehan beat Alex Applebee’s throw home for the game’s first run.

“I had two strikes on me, and I knew I had to get the bat on the ball,” said Crawford. “I tried to place it between second and first, and our baserunners are smart, [Sheehan] ran smart and got the run.”

Gifford scored on an errant throw to third by catcher Christian Greener as Crawford was stealing second.

That was more than Gifford needed, as he retired the final 10 batters he faced.

“I thought both teams played a great game,” said Kinney. “We made a couple of mistakes, and they took advantage. That’s basically the way it happened.”

The victory was a long-awaited one for Old Town, which lost a nine-inning heartbreaker to Caribou in the 2014 regional final and had an undefeated regular season last spring before the state’s 2015 Mr. Baseball, Eric Hoogterp, was injured and unable to pitch during postseason play, leaving the Coyotes to fall to Winslow in the semifinals.

Then Old Town veteran pitcher Dana Ouellette went out for the season with an ankle early this spring, leaving the Coyotes needing to regroup quickly.

“We lost Dana Ouellette, and we thought that was going to set us back,” said Crawford, “but we fought through it.

“Knowing we have one more game is a great feeling. We’ve worked hard every day in practice. We’ve put our hearts into it, and it’s paying off.”