BANGOR, Maine — The Limestone-MSSM Eagles found themselves in a unique situation last Wednesday — playing for an Eastern Maine championship for the first time in school history. Their opponent, the Bangor Christian Patriots, was a seasoned playoff team as the two-time defending Class D state champions.
The difference in big game experience was revealed early as the Patriots took advantage of a pair of Eagle throwing errors during the first two innings in rolling to an 8-0 lead and they went on to an 11-1 victory in a game called after 4-1/2 innings due to the 10-run rule.
“It was a lot of jitters,” admitted Limestone-MSSM senior Chris Bernier.
The Eagles’ season came to an end with an overall record of 10-8. The Patriots went on to down Wiscasset, 5-4, on Saturday for their third consecutive state title and finished with a 19-1 mark.
BC took very little time to establish itself in the title game. After the first two batters were retired on groundouts in the bottom of the first, Cody Collins reached on a walk, stole second and third and then scored as Eagle catcher Dylan Nadeau’s throw sailed into left field. Seth Pearson, who also drew a walk, scored from second on Tucker Rice’s single into right field to make it 2-0.
An inning later, another two-out rally ensued for the Patriots. With runners on second and third, Josh Palmeter dribbled a ball down the first base line and Limestone-MSSM starting pitcher Tyler Morgan threw the ball into right field to plate both Bryan Boutot and Zach Palmeter.
“That was a tough play and ultimately cost us four runs,” said Limestone-MSSM first-year coach Eric McGough. “But Bangor Christian is a team that when you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile and that’s what great teams do. They are aggressive on the base paths and disciplined and it’s difficult to be both, but they are incredible.”
After a walk and a hit batsmen to load the bases, Morgan was replaced on the mound by Sam Kupiec. Rice stepped up to the plate again and drilled a 3-2 pitch down the third base line to drive in two more. Kyle Holmes followed with a two-run double before Kupiec fanned Dean Grass to end the inning, but by that point it was 8-0 and the rout was on.
“We try to keep the pace high,” Rice said. “That’s the ideal situation, jumping on [your opponent] early and keep the energy going.”
Meanwhile, the Eagles were unable to generate much offense over the first three innings. They had a baserunner every time, with Bernier and Kupiec drawing walks in each of the first two frames and Tristan Kirk coming through with the team’s first hit in the third, but there were two outs on all three occasions and the team was unable to advance a runner into scoring position.
“I thought we were hitting the ball hard and everything was going good,” Bernier said, “but they are a great fielding team and you can’t do much about it.”
Limestone-MSSM was able to break through in the top of the fourth as No. 4 hitter Chris Giroux had a one-out bloop single into left center field, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Morgan’s infield groundout.
BC put together three hits in the fourth, with Rice delivering another run-scoring single for one of them, and took advantage of two more Eagle errors to score three more runs.
Kupiec had a single to right field to lead off the fifth, but was erased on a double play and Paul Gentile grounded out to end the game.
Seth Pearson and Zach Palmeter did the pitching for BC. Neither was able to retire the side in order and both failed to register a strikeout, things that pleased McGough.
“I thought there was a lot of good out there for us,” he said. “I felt it was the best approach we had at the plate all season. We hit a lot of hard ground balls against some quality pitching.”
McGough said the experience of reaching the title game was a great one and should have far-reaching effects down the road.
“It was a great building opportunity for us,” he said. “The guys got to see where the standard is now and know where we have to jump over next year.”
