FREEPORT — Josh Burke was just hoping to get a couple starts on the mound this year for the Freeport baseball team. Flip the calendar ahead two months and Burke has already made two starts in the playoffs, and on Saturday will make a third — in the Class B state championship game.
Burke’s change of fortune is just part of the bigger underdog story that is Freeport baseball this spring. The seventh-seeded Falcons have defied all expectations to make it to their first ever state championship game.
“A lot of people have used some different words. ‘Magical’ has come up a lot. ‘Unbelievable’ has come up a ton,” Freeport coach Bill Ridge said. “And both of those are really, that’s accurate as to how we feel right now.”
In his first two years, Ridge coaxed the Falcons to a pair of playoff berths, with Freeport bowing out in the first round both times. His hope this year was to win a playoff game.
Even that looked like a tall task at the midway point of the season, with the Falcons sitting at 3-5. Then came a seven-game winning streak to boost Freeport to 10-5.
“We started gaining confidence throughout the regular season with the win streak, and then we started gaining this kind of confidence and thinking ‘we’re supposed to win,’ not ‘we have a chance to win,'” Ridge said. “It was not only long, but there was quality wins in there too.”
The second win of the streak saw the Falcons topple two-time defending Class B state champion Greely. The second-to-last win was a road victory over 2013 champion York.
Burke, who worked his way into the No. 2 slot in the rotation as a sophomore, pitched both those games.
“I feel like I had something going after our first win against Greely. I thought that was something special right there,” Burke said. “Then I went in feeling confident in our first York win. And then when I got the win in that I felt good going on.”
All that was standing in the way of the Falcons and an eight-game winning streak to end the regular season was a matchup with Class C conference foe Traip Academy. Freeport lost the game 2-1, and a little bit more.
“At the time that was kind of devastating to these guys because we knew that if we had won that game we got a first-round bye,” Ridge said. “We lost that and had to go play a prelim, and looking back it’s kind of that game that last time to just really set us straight and wake us up for the playoff run.”
Playoff run? For a program that hadn’t won a single playoff game since 1985? Believe the unbelievable.
The beginning of the run began with Burke on the mound at home against No. 10 Morse — not senior ace Jack Davenport, but out-of-nowhere sophomore Burke. The Falcons won anyway, 5-1.
Then came No. 2 York, and Ridge was able to roll out Davenport.
“Jack’s obviously our undisputed ace, and so we went into the second round of the playoffs with our ace. So we had a lot of confidence going into that one, too,” Ridge said. “Once we won the second one, then everyone was feeling like, ‘why not? Why can’t we just keep winning?'”
The Falcons did keep winning. Burke beat Greely — the No. 3 seed — a second time, then Davenport out-dueled No. 1 Cape Elizabeth to send Freeport to the state championship game.
“It’s definitely amazing to think that we’re this far in the season now,” Davenport said. “We’ve just come a long ways as a team and as a program, and it’s hard to believe that we’ve done this. It’s really amazing.”
Ridge said it was senior leaders like Davenport, as well as Caiden Shea, Ben Humphrey, Caleb Rice and Brandon Cass, that pushed the Falcons’ sights higher than just one playoff win.
“As the season grew, our five seniors, especially, were able to really verbalize to everyone — family, friends, teammates, coaches — that winning one game in the playoffs wasn’t the goal anymore,” Ridge said. “That they believed they should be a part of making a deeper run than just that one game.”
Burke said that having Davenport as a mentor has helped his personal progression this year.
“Every time he goes out and pitches I watch, see what he does, see where he throws it, see where the right spots are,” Burke said of Davenport. “He’s confident in himself. It doesn’t matter what pitch he throws, he’s just confident.”
It’s a confidence that Burke has tried to emulate. What has helped him be confident is the defense behind him. It’s a defense that Ridge said is at its best when Burke, not Davenport, is on the bump.
“I think having Jack at shortstop and having Caleb Rice at first, it’s a real big change and a real big improvement to our field,” Burke said of the reason for the defensive upgrade.
While the two pitchers have stolen the spotlight, the Falcon fielders have stolen runs every step of the way.
“The one thing that really stands out that, I shouldn’t say it was unexpected, but has been better-than-expected is the defense,” Ridge said. “And that’s all around especially our outfield. Our outfielders (Shea in left, Joey Burke in center, Josh Spaulding in right) do an exceptional job chasing stuff down.”
“It’s not just me or anyone who’s pitching. It’s the whole team,” Davenport added. “It’s defense. The pitchers just pitch their game and they just know that they have great defense behind them. It’s a whole team effort.”
The team doesn’t stop at the foul lines. The players in uniform have received a boost from the sea of maroon in the stands.
“The town is really behind us,” Ridge said. “They’ve got the energy going right now.”
“This is special,” Burke said. “It’s great for our team. It’s great for the Town of Freeport really.”
Burke will have that support behind him Saturday at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor, when the Falcons take on North No. 1 seed Old Town. He said he’s “a little bit” nervous, but he’s feeling confident. He certainly has his coach’s complete confidence.
“He’s gone out and proved to me there’s no reason to doubt him,” Ridge said of Burke.
Burke called this playoff run both a “crazy ride” and an “amazing journey.”
That ride, that journey, ends Saturday, well after anyone could have predicted.
“It just feels amazing, really, because nobody even though of us making it probably to the semifinals,” Burke said. “But look at us now, state championship game. It’s just something special.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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