STANDISH — No comebacks this time. Roderick Maynard made sure of it.
The Sacopee Valley senior struck out the side in the seventh inning to complete a 3-2 victory over George Stevens Academy in the Class C baseball state championship game Saturday afternoon at St. Joseph’s College.
Maynard’s final curveball stranded the potential tying run at second base and set off a celebration 23 years in the making.
“Best day of my life,” said Maynard, who struck out nine, yielded five hits and didn’t walk a batter. “To be under all my teammates that I’ve worked with for 10 years, that was the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
The title is the fourth in school history but the first since 1993. The score was identical to the 3-2 regional semifinal victory a week earlier over top-seeded Monmouth, a nine-inning affair in which Maynard fanned 17 and threw 138 pitches.
“I had a week off,” Maynard said. “I didn’t throw (again) until Friday. So I was feeling fresh and live and everything was strong.”
It certainly seemed so in the early going. Maynard faced the minimum 12 batters through four innings, picking off the only base runner after an infield single.
Meanwhile, the Hawks (17-3) built a 3-0 lead. Maynard drove in Sacopee’s first run with the third of three straight two-out singles in the first inning. Kyle Jordan (three hits) added an RBI single in the third to make it 2-0.
Brandon Burnell doubled to lead off the Sacopee fourth and was on third with one out when he took off for home on a ground ball with the infielders playing in to prevent a run.
” ‘No! No! No!’ sounds a lot like ‘Go! Go! Go!’ ” Burnell said. “It ends with O.”
Fortunately for Burnell, the throw sailed to the backstop and he was safe for a 3-0 lead that seemed insurmountable.
But George Stevens had scored twice in its final at-bat to beat Houlton 9-8 in the regional final, an ending similar to Sacopee Valley rallying from two down in the seventh for a 7-6 victory over Lisbon in the South final.
The Eagles (18-2) scratched out a run in the fifth on a Stefan Simmons triple, and another in the sixth on Tyler McKenney’s bloop double, a sacrifice bunt and a groundout. They lost a potential run when Simmons was hung out to dry on a failed suicide squeeze in the fifth.
“I’ve coached these guys all the way up through, from little kids in T-ball to this year here,” said Sacopee Valley Coach Eric Anderson. “So they’ve been together for a long time and played a ton of baseball. Their maturity and leadership, especially the last two weeks in the run through the playoffs, has just been tremendous.”
CLASS D
SEARSPORT 10, PENOBSCOT VALLEY 2: Kyle Moore scattered nine hits and singled home a pair of runs during a five-run sixth inning at Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium as the Vikings (17-3) pulled away from the Howlers (18-2) to repeat as state champions.
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