BANGOR — St. Dom’s got timely hitting, solid defense and good pitching in its Class D state championship title defense.
Pitcher Ashton Hammond threw a 105-pitch complete game as the Saints defeated Bangor Christian 4-1 at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor on Tuesday.
Hammond allowed five hits and two walks while racking up seven strikeouts.
“I think it was an unreal experience,” Hammond said. “It felt really good and it was fun to be out there on the field. There was a lot of pressure the whole season to come back and win again. I thought our team could handle it. It was a fun time.”
Hammond finished the year with a 5-1 record with an ERA under 3.00.
St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said Hammond pitched well enough to earn the state championship.
“He won before this at Richmond, and he was really, really good and unhittable,” Blackman said. “Today, he battled and kept us in it.”
Jay Libby started hot on the mound for the Patriots (16-2) in the top of the first, sitting down the Saints in order on 12 pitches.
Libby only had one other 1-2-3 inning in the game and that came in the fifth.
“You got adrenaline in the first inning and you are throwing really hard — they just made the adjustments,” Bangor Christian coach Tim Collins said. “You could hear (Blackman) telling them to time it up and they did a good job working the count and getting the pitch they want.”
Hammond got the first two Bangor Christian batters out on a fly out by Libby and a strikeout of Micah Robert. Ryan Libby had a double to left field, but Hammond struck out Cole Payne, ending the bottom of the first.
“We were pleased with the way we put the ball in play, but they made every single play,” Collins said of St. Dom’s.
Ridge Dionne started the top of the second for St. Dom’s (14-5) with a single to right field and then stole second base. A Riley Daigle groundout sent Dionne to third. Dionne scored on a bunt single by Ethan Pelletier that just dribbled into the infield.
Pelletier went to third base after a Curtis Wheeler flyout and Ryan Bussiere single.
“I think he would make bunt right off, but he didn’t give me the bunt sign, so I was a little surprised,” Pelletier said of Blackman. “As soon as he gave me the squeeze, I knew what I had to do and luckily I got on base, too.”
With Thomas Casserly at bat, Pelletier scored on a passed ball for a 2-0 lead.
Blackman said he wasn’t worried about the small ball once the Saints started hitting against Jay Libby, who entered the game sporting a 0.15 ERA and 98 strikeouts in just under 40 innings.
“Once we started to make the contact we made, I didn’t worry as much about manufacturing runs,” Blackman said. “I said, ‘Know what, we can get to this guy without manufacturing runs.”
Hammond struck out two more batters in the bottom of the second. He helped his own cause in the top of the third when he had a double down the third-base line. He moved to third base on a passed ball and scored on a Timothee Ouellette sacrifice fly.
Miles Frenette reached second on an error by the third baseman and interference by the first baseman. He stole third base and on a bunt attempt by Dionne, Frenette got tagged at home to end the inning.
Hammond got in a jam in the bottom of the third, walking Jon Benjamin and allowing singles by Jay and Ryan Libby to load the bases. A Cole Payne sac fly got the Patriots on the board, down 3-1, but Hammond got out of the jam by getting Colton White to ground out.
“He made the big pitches when he had to,” Collins said of Hammond. “He was throwing harder in the seventh than he was early on in the game.”
St. Dom’s started the top of the fourth with back-to-back singles by Daigle and Pelletier. Bussiere walked with one out to load the bases, but a strikeout of Thomas Casserly and Hammond’s line out ended the inning.
Daigle made a diving catch in left field to end the bottom of the fourth inning. Then Libby and Hammond both had 1-2-3 innings in the fifth.
“I was nervous going into the game. I had the yips a little bit, but I settled down,” Hammond said. “I just focused on my mechanics and getting the ball over across the plate and let my team do the rest.”
Daigle led off the top of the sixth with a double and an Ethan Pelletier groundout sent Daigle to third. During Wheeler’s at-bat, Daigle came home but he got tagged out. Wheeler then hit a single and Bussiere walked. However, the Saints couldn’t knock either of them in.
Ashton Hammond appeared to pop out to second to start the top of the seventh, but the ball dropped in. Hammond stole second and moved to third on an Ouellette groundout. Hammond then scored on a wild pitch, extending St. Dom’s lead to 4-1.
Hammond finished the game off in the bottom of the seventh by striking out Veronica Mercier and pinch hitter Robert Giles. Jay Libby reached on an error, then Robert sent a grounder to Tim Ouellette at shortstop. Ouellette’s throw was high, but first baseman Ethan Pelletier caught it and threw Libby out at third base to end the game.
It’s the Saints’ seventh state championship in school history. They won Class C titles in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2015, then captured their first state championship in 2022.
“It’s wonderful,” senior outfielder Miles Frenette said. “To look where we came from in the past three years and get two in a row — it’s just incredible. I feel like I say that a lot, but it’s quite an accomplishment to go two in a row, (especially after going 2-14 two years ago). Then end up going 6-8 last year, and I don’t remember our record this year, but it was over .500. To continuously get a better record, I think that’s great for the team and program.”
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