Oxford Hills starter Janek Luksza follows through on a pitch against Mt. Ararat during the Class A North semifinals at Gouin Athletic Complex on Saturday. (Lee Horton/Sun Journal)
SOUTH PARIS — As wind gusts whipped across Gouin Athletic Complex and turned insufficiently anchored objects into unguided missiles on Saturday, Janek Luksza remained unshakable in the middle of it all.
The Oxford Hills junior starter breezed through the first three innings, then used all he had in reserve to hold off a fierce Mt. Ararat comeback and lead the second-seeded Vikings to a 5-3 win in the Class A North semifinals.
“I was trying to throw strikes and trust my defense behind me,” Luksza said. “I was able to get a lot of ground balls.”
Luksza’s catcher for the first 6 2/3 innings, Wyatt Williamson, took over for him on the mound with the tying run at the plate and got the final out to send the Vikings to their first regional final since 2013.
Oxford Hills (15-3) will face top-seeded Bangor, the four-time defending regional and state champions, at 5 p.m. on Tuesday at Morton Field in Augusta.
“It’s pretty great. I’ve never been to a regional final,” senior left fielder Hunter LaBossiere said. “It’s definitely huge, especially with this team that we have now, we’re something special. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”
The sixth-seeded Eagles, who reached the regional final as a No. 7 seed last season and upset No. 3 Edward Little in this year’s quarterfinals, end their season at 12-6.
A bizarre and, for the Eagles, frustrating fourth inning turned out to be the difference.
Trailing 1-0 and managing only a Nick Merrill single its first time through the order, Mt. Ararat loaded the bases with one out in the fourth on a pair of walks and an Austin Damon single.
Luksza, who got 12 of his 20 outs on the ground, then fielded the biggest ground ball of the day from the mound and fired to Williamson to start an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.
“Baseball is a game of momentum, and that took a lot out of us,” Mt. Ararat coach Brett Chase said. “It took us an inning to sort of collect ourselves and get back into it. They’re a good team, and you’ve got to capitalize when you get a chance against a team like Oxford Hills.”
“That definitely got us going. It got our intensity back up,” said Luksza (one strikeout, seven hits and three walks allowed). “It was the perfect play, really.”
The Vikings’ half of the fourth wasn’t pretty, but they’ll always consider it perfect.
The frame started with Eagles pitcher Hunter Lohr issuing a walk then erasing the pinch-runner with a pickoff. Oxford Hills subsequently loaded the bases on singles by LaBossiere and Troy Johnson sandwiched around Lohr hitting Emery Chickering with a pitch.
Williamson, the next batter, squared for a suicide squeeze but couldn’t make contact on a tough pitch. Eagles catcher Nate Leslie chased LaBossiere back to third, only to find Chickering standing on the bag, too. With LaBossiere, by rule, entitled to the base, Chickering was tagged for the second out.
Williamson followed with a ground ball to second that should have ended the inning. The second baseman bobbled it, then tried to flip to second base for a force out. But the shortstop covering had to reach across his body and didn’t secure the catch. LaBossiere scored to make it 2-0.
Another hit batter loaded the bases for Cam Slicer, who drew a walk to force home the third run and chase Lohr.
Reliever Cam Grant got a potential inning-ending grounder to the left side from the first batter faced, Rodney Bean, but a throw in the dirt skipped away from first and allowed two more runs to score for a 5-0 Vikings lead.
“That gave us that breathing room we needed,” Slicer said. “We had Colton (Carson) available (to relieve) and we were toying with the idea a little. But we were hoping Janek could eat up a lot of innings, and he did.”
Grant retired the final seven Vikings to give his team a chance to come back.
Luksza stranded runners at first and second with one out in the sixth to delay the rally. Hawkes and Leslie, though, got it started again with singles to start the seventh.
After a ground out forced Leslie at second and advanced Hawkes to third, Lohr ended Luksza’s shutout bid with a sacrifice fly to left.
A double by Merrill and two-run single by Damon (three hits) made it 5-3 and kept Luksza from finishing the game, as he was lifted for Williamson after an efficient 75 pitches.
“I’m not sure he ran out of steam. They’re just a good team,” Shane Slicer said. “Third or fourth time around (the lineup), it gets tougher.”
Williamson, who had taken a bit of a pounding behind the plate blocking pitches in the dirt, ended the threat painlessly with a ground ball to second.
Oxford Hills jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead by starting the bottom of the first with singles by Cam Slicer and Rodney Bean, Luksza’s sacrifice bunt and Ashton Kennison’s sacrifice fly to left that scored Slicer.
Lohr, a junior with a deceptive, herky-jerky delivery, settled down through the next two innings, while Luksza needed only 21 pitches to face one batter over the minimum through the first three innings.
“I was trying to get my two-seam fastball inside to jam them,” Luksza said.
“He was gutty. I thought he was spotting his pitches really well, just off the plate a little bit,” Shane Slicer said. “Sometimes he gets those pitches, sometimes he doesn’t. But he was hitting his spots exactly when he wanted.”
Oxford Hills third baseman Emery Chickering congratulates relief pitcher Wyatt Williamson after the final out of the Vikings’ 5-3 win over Mt. Ararat in the Class A North semifinals at Gouin Athletic Complex on Saturday. (Lee Horton/Sun Journal)
Oxford Hills starter Janek Luksza pitches against Mt. Ararat during the Class A North semifinals at Gouin Athletic Complex on Saturday. (Lee Horton/Sun Journal)
Oxford Hills catcher Wyatt Williamson attempts to track down a pop foul during the Class A North semifinals at Gouin Athletic Complex on Saturday. (Lee Horton/Sun Journal)
Oxford Hills second baseman Rodney Bean touches the bag for a force out of Mt. Ararat’s Nathan Leslie and throws to first in an attempt to turn a double play during the Class A North semifinals at Gouin Athletic Complex on Saturday. (Lee Horton/Sun Journal)Mt. Ararat’s Cameron Grant pitches against Oxford Hills during the Class A North semifinals at Gouin Athletic Complex on Saturday. (Lee Horton/Sun Journal)Mt. Ararat’s Garrett Moody attempts to get to first base as Oxford Hills first baseman Ashton Kennison tries to dig out a low throw from third baseman Emery Chickering. Moody was safe on the play. (Caroline Burns photo)Oxford Hills celebrate after its win over Mt. Ararart in the Class A North semifinals Saturday at Gouin Athletic Complex. (Caroline Burns photo)
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