Bangor Christian cruises past Katahdin to win D North baseball crown
The Bangor Christian baseball team has not kept its goal for the 2023 season a secret, and after its 12-1, six-inning victory over Katahdin of Stacyville in Wednesday’s Class D North championship game at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor the Patriots are now just one win away from realizing that considerable ambition.
“The goal this year is a state title,” said Bangor Christian senior catcher Micah Robert. “That’s what we’ve been working toward and sacrifice for and sweat for.”
That sacrifice and sweat was reflected in the regional final by dominant pitching from senior right-hander Jason Libby and a balanced offense with seven different players accounting for the team’s nine hits and seven different players scoring at least one run as Bangor Christian won its first D North title since 2017.
“We’ve preached that it’s not the team with the best player, though it may have been today, but that it’s the best team top to bottom,” Bangor Christian coach Tim Collins said. “If it’s just one person they pitch around you, if you’re the best team you win.”
Second-seeded Bangor Christian (16-1) will advance to Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. state final back at Mansfield Stadium against defending state champion St. Dominic of Auburn, which defeated Searsport 4-1 to win the Class D South crown.
Bangor Christian will be in search of its first state title since the Patriots captured three consecutive gold gloves in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Libby, who struck out 22 batters in one game during the regular season and this week was named the Penobscot Valley Conference Class D player and pitcher of the year and a finalist for the state’s Mr. Baseball award, required just 91 pitches during his complete-game two-hitter against Katahdin.
He struck out 14 batters — including Katahdin’s first 10 outs of the game — and walked just three with a strategy that involved using his off-speed pitches early in the count.
“We knew they’d be hunting fastballs with my veto,” said Libby, whose fastball was clocked as high as the mid-80s. “They were trying to hit fastballs early so if I threw them a curveball it would throw them off and we’d get ahead in the count.”
Top-ranked Katahdin (15-2) was able to make more contact against Libby as the game continued but managed just a single run after Bangor Christian had built a 7-0 lead.
“We tried to prepare for him,” Katahdin coach Tim Thoreson said. “We had the pitching machine dialed up and we tried to throw velocity as much as we could, but he’s a state of Maine Mr. Baseball finalist for a reason and that’s really what it came down to. We tried to attack but we just really ran into a buzzsaw. The kid’s good.”
Libby was backed by a balanced offense that generated two big innings, a six-run uprising in the top of the third and a five-run rally in the sixth that led to the game ending at the completion of that inning under the 10-run rule.
Libby and Robert had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI apiece, while junior third baseman Colton White had three RBIs and junior right-fielder Jalen Reed drove home two runs.
Bangor Christian scored the first run of the North final in the top of the first inning without a hit, as Jason Libby was hit by the game’s first pitch, stole second, advanced to third base on a comeback to the mound by Ryan Libby and scored on a wild pitch.
The Patriots broke the game open in the top of the third, sending 10 batters to the plate during a six-run rally that was highlighted by Jason Libby’s RBI double to deep center field and a run-producing single by Robert to go with four walks and two hit batters.
Jason Libby’s blast plated Jon Benjamin, who started the uprising by drawing a one-out walk from Katahdin starter Wesley Pipes. Robert then singled past diving Cougars’ shortstop Connor Edwards to drive home Libby and make it 3-0.
“I was hunting a fastball and that’s what I got and I crushed it,” said the left-handed hitting Libby, who was batting against a Katahdin shift that positioned three defenders to the right of second base.
Ryan Libby was hit by a pitch, then Cole Payne, White and Reed all walked, with White and Reed earning RBIs with their bases-loaded free passes.
A groundout by Conrad Straubel enabled Payne to score to make it 6-0 before White scored on a wild pitch by Edwards — the first of two Katahdin relievers in the inning — to cap off the uprising.
Katahdin’s Kalan Mann led off the bottom of the third with a sharp single to left. He stole second, advanced to third after back-to-back two-out walks to Kyle McNally and Calvin Richardson and scored on a wild pitch to draw Katahdin within 7-1.
Bangor Christian stretched its lead to double digits in the sixth with a five-run rally ignited by senior designated hitter Veronica Mercier, who flared a leadoff single to left-center field.
It was the first of six hits by the Patriots in the inning, including a two-run single by White and RBI singles by Ryan Libby, Reed and pinch-hitter Robert Giles.