In their last ever event in the history of their school, St. Dom’s would hold off a late Bangor Christian rally to win their fourth straight Class D Baseball State Championship with a 9-6 victory over the Patriots at Mahaney Diamond in Orono on Saturday evening.
The Saints looked to be rolling. Nolan Cavers began the scoring with a two-run single in the top of the first inning as they never trailed. They used a pair of three run frames in the third and fourth and had a 9-1 advantage after five. The Patriots rallied in the last of the sixth on a RBI single by Jack Kowalski, and then with the bases loaded Drake Nash hit a three-run triple and also came in to score on an error on the same play to slice the deficit to three. St. Dom’s capped off their fourth straight title after a one out walk in the seventh by retiring the final two batters. Logan Leclair drove in three runs to lead the Saints, while Nolan Cavers had two RBI. Riley Daigle and Kessel Lynn each had two hits and one RBI, with Daigle also scoring three times. Leclair picked up the pitching win by firing the first 5.0+ innings and was charged with four earned runs on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts. Nash had three RBI and Kowalski had two to lead the Patriots. Jon Benjamin reached base twice from his leadoff spot with one hit, one walk, stole a base, and also scored two runs. Blaze Morris suffered the pitching loss allowing eight runs (five earned) on six hits with three walks in 3.1 innings. Bangor Christian ends their season with a record of 18-2, and is the last Class D North team to win a state championship (2014) as the South have won the last 10 that have been played. St. Dom’s finishes up their baseball history at 14-6 with four state crowns in a row (nine overall), while going 9-2 in 11 state championship game appearances.
