The Southern Maine Community College Seawolves baseball team got a walkoff two out, two-run double from freshman Peter Keblinsky in the bottom of the ninth inning on Saturday, rallying to defeat York County Community College 7-6 in the Yankee Small College Conference (YSCC) Championship game played in Old Orchard Beach. It is the seventh straight title for SMCC.
Keblinsky grounded into a doubleplay that scored a run for SMCC, while Brady Wintle also walked in the first inning with the bases loaded as the Seawolves got out to an early 2-0 lead. York County seemed to take over after that, scoring the next six runs. A two-run double by Emerson Brown, an RBI groundout by Maksim Masse, and an RBI double by Caden Fontaine all in the second inning made it 4-2 Hawks. Hayden Connarton had a sacrifice RBI flyout in the fifth, and James Erickson added an RBI single in the eighth to extend it to 6-2. Quinn Dillon lifted an RBI sacrifice fly for SMCC in the bottom of the eighth. The game winner in the last of the ninth inning began with a Davis Kibler single to leftfield. The Seawolves next two hitters though were retired by Hawks reliever Brady Doherty. Adam Rowland kept the rally alive with a double to score Kibler, and Dillon followed with a walk. Brady O’Lone singled to center to slice the deficit to 6-5, before Keblinsky walked it off with a deep drive into the gap in left centerfield.
O’Lone led all players at the plate in the win for Southern Maine Community College with five hits. Keblinsky, the former standout athlete from Ellsworth High School, had three hits including the biggest one with his two-run game winning double. Dillon and Rowland also had two hits a piece. Freshman Jason Libby (Bangor Christian) started on the mound and allowed six runs (five earned) on 11 hits with no walks and six strikeouts in 8.0 innings. Bennett Smith (6-1) won in relief pitching the final frame. Caden Petit and Danny Williams had three hits each in the loss for York County Community College. Masse had two hits and two RBI, and Brown also added a pair of runs driven in. Doherty (1-2) was tagged in the defeat on the mound. The Hawks season comes to an end with a record of 16-16.
SMCC finished at 28-12, but because of seeding were left out of the USCAA National Tournament in Pennsylvania.
Recap by Chris Lessner/Video courtesy of SMCC Baseball on Twitter
The game winner by Peter Keblinsky, as SMCC scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to walk-off with the YSCC Championship
