BANGOR- Ty Giberson provided the only offense needed, and then pitched into the seventh inning on Saturday afternoon in leading the Bucksport Golden Bucks to their first ever baseball state championship victory by edging the Lisbon Greyhounds 1-0 in the Class C Final at Mansfield Stadium.
Giberson struggled in the first two innings with some control problems walking four batters, as Lisbon loaded the bases in the top half of each frame. The senior right hander escaped any damage when he got Mason Booker on a groundout in the first (after 29 pitches), and struckout Levi Tibbetts in the second to keep the game scoreless. Bucksport got the only offense in the fourth inning against Lisbon starter Hunter Brissette. With one out Jake Guty singled into short right field, and would steal second base on a 1-1 count to Giberson. Giberson then hit a hard groundball single to left between third and shortstop to score Guty. The Greyhounds got a leadoff single by Tibbetts to begin the fifth, but he was also stranded at third after a sacrifice bunt and groundout when Booker popped out to first baseman Gavyn Holyoke. The Bucks went in order against Brissette in the fifth and sixth innings, and Giberson set down Lisbon on three groundouts to third baseman Brandon Elden in the sixth. The last opportunity in the seventh for the Greyhounds started harmless with a strikeout looking of Ethan Brown, before Brissette slapped a hard single to left center and Tibbetts walked. Cam Rich would replace Giberson with the game on the line, as Giberson at that point had reached his limit of pitches at 110. Rich came through in the pressure situation, getting Caleb Phillips to fly out to center and striking out Nick Ferrence swinging to end it with the tying run 90 feet away.
Giberson went 6.1 innings to pick up the victory allowing no runs on five hits with six walks and six strikeouts. Brissette took the loss for Lisbon allowing just the one run on three hits with one walk and six strikeouts in 6.0 innings. Brissette reached base three times (two walks, one hit) as did Tibbetts (two walks, one hit). The South Champion Greyhounds left 11 men on base, eight in scoring position, in losing their first game of the season ending up 20-1. They were making their third appearance in the state game in the past five seasons (won in 2019). Bucksport also finishes 20-1 under first year head coach Josh Jackson, ending their season with a 15 game win streak and outscoring their opponents 176-16 over the course of the 21 games. Their only blemish was a 1-0 loss to Class B State Champion Ellsworth on May 3. The Bucks previously lost in state title games in Class C in 2015, and in Class B in 2000, 2003, and 2006.
Lisbon- 0 runs, 5 hits, 0 errors
Bucksport 1 run, three hits, 1 error
WP- Giberson LP- Brissette
SB- Guty
LOB- Lisbon 11, Bucksport 3
