STANDISH — Lisbon High’s defense has stood tall throughout an undefeated baseball season.
In the Class C South final Wednesday against No. 6 Sacopee Valley, the top-seeded Greyhounds committed a season-high four errors. Still, defense was a big reason that Lisbon rallied for a 4-3 win and advanced to its second state championship game in three seasons.
Lisbon (19-0) will face Orono at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor. It’ll be a rematch of the 2017 final won by Orono.
A four-run Lisbon rally in the third inning erased a 3-0 deficit. Then the Greyhounds came up with a couple clutch defensive plays.
The first of those came in the fifth inning. Sacopee leadoff hitter Brandon Capano tried to score from first base on a double to the left-field wall by Austin Eastman. Left fielder Daytona McIver threw to shortstop DJ Douglass, who pivoted quickly and fired a strike to catcher Justin Le to nail Capano at the plate.
“He looked a lot closer (to the plate) than he was, and luckily the throw was right on the money and we have a good catcher that brought it down and made the tag,” said Douglass, who committed two errors that didn’t cost the Greyhounds. “After that, we had so much momentum, in the dugout and with the fans. It would have been a lot of harder if we had lost.”
“Those errors didn’t hurt us, and the key play was Daytona to DJ to Le to get that tying run out. That lifted us,” said Lisbon Coach Randy Ridley.
In the sixth, Sacopee Valley’s No. 9 hitter, Matt Day, reached on a one-out error, moved to second on a wild pitch, then stole third with two outs. Dylan Miner drove a Lucas Francis pitch to left-center, but center fielder Noah Austin ran it down, falling backward after the catch.
“Noah made a great catch. We made enough plays to win the game,” said Ridley.
Sacopee Valley took the lead in the top of the first. Capano singled on Francis’ first pitch, and two pitches later, Miner drove a triple to right-center. Isaac Stocks drove in Miner with a sacrifice fly.
Miner, Sacopee’s pitcher, was helped by a double play in the second inning.
Then, Lisbon’s first two errors allowed Miner to score in the top of the third.
Miner walked Le and McIver on eight straight pitches to start the bottom of the third, however, and Hunter Brissette tripled to right-center to drive them in.
“The pitch was right on the outside corner and I tried to hit it to the gap in right field,” said Brissette, who was 2 for 3.
Austin tied the game with a double to right. Francis followed with an RBI single to left, and the Greyhounds had a 4-3 lead.
“That inning seemed to set the tone for the rest of the game, and we held them from there,” Brissette said.
That was the only tough inning for Miner, who needed just 83 pitches for a complete game, with six strikeouts, three walks and seven hits allowed.
Francis also allowed seven hits.
“Miner is a heck of a pitcher,” said Ridley.
“Lucas threw a great game. He adjusted to their big guns.”
For Sacopee, one bad inning and missed opportunities proved costly.
“That one inning (hurt us), but as a team we didn’t get enough hits throughout the lineup and fell short,” said Hawks Coach Kevin Miner. “I am happy with the boys. They wanted it. Lisbon just beat us.”
OXFORD HILLS 3, EDWARD LITTLE 1: The top-ranked Vikings (19-0) broke a tie with two unearned runs in the sixth inning, and Colton Carson finished with nine strikeouts as Oxford Hills beat No. 3 Edward Little (13-6) in the Class A North final in Augusta.
A two-out error allowed Janek Luksza to score the go-ahead run. Cade Truman followed with an RBI single.
Ben Cassidy’s RBI single gave Edward Little a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Oxford Hills tied it in the fourth when Luksza doubled and scored on a single by Will Dieterich.
SOFTBALL
SKOWHEGAN 5, OXFORD HILLS 1: Mariah Dunbar drove in two runs in the first inning and Sydney Ames pitched a four-hitter as top-seeded Skowhegan (19-0) defeated the second-seeded Vikings (17-2) in the Class A North championship game at Colby College.
Skowhegan, which won its third regional title in four seasons, will play Scarborough or Thornton Academy at 4 p.m. Saturday at Brewer High.
Sydney Reed was 2 for 3 with two runs scored for Skowhegan. Ames did not allow an earned run, racking up eight strikeouts and she held the Vikings scoreless over the final six innings.
Skowhegan got four consecutive singles in the first inning. Dunbar singled home Jaycie Christopher and Annie Cooke to give Skowhegan a 3-1 lead.
BOYS’ LACROSSE
MARANACOOK 5, GRAY-NEW GLOUCESTER 4: Skyler Boucher scored the go-ahead goal with 1:26 left, and Will Hays made a save with 10 seconds remaining to preserve Maranacook/Winthrop/Spruce Mountain’s win in a Class C semifinal in Gray.
Fourth-seeded Gray-New Gloucester (11-3) got goals from Kyle Mercier, Travis Caron and Gabe Gendreau for a 3-1 halftime lead, but the Patriots didn’t score again until Drew LaGreda tied the game at 4-4 with 6:26 left.
Garit Laliberte, Ian Dow, Tim Worster and Beau Schmelzer each tallied a goal for eighth-seeded Maranacook (11-4). Hays finished with 12 saves.
– Staff reports contributed to this roundup.
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