4 min read

STANDISH — Biddeford High finished its improbable baseball season with an appropriately dramatic victory.

The Tigers (16-4) twice rallied from three-run deficits in the Class A championship game Saturday at sun-splashed Larry Mahaney Diamond on the Saint Joseph’s College campus to beat Mt. Ararat, 7-6.

Biddeford did not lead until a two-run rally in the bottom of the sixth that featured four infield hits. Ernie Dore pitched a complete game, clinching the Tigers’ first state championship since 1984 with a 1-2-3 seventh that included a diving catch by left fielder Payton Blais.

Eight Biddeford seniors, including seven starters, won more games this season than they had their first three years when they were a combined 14-34 without a playoff appearance.

“I’m still mind-blown at that, too. This whole season is just ridiculous to me,” said Biddeford senior catcher Kaden Langevin, who drove in two runs, including the winner with a sacrifice fly. “I had full faith that we would get here, though. This whole age group, this senior group, has been together since Little League. Made it to the finals in Little League and lost. We weren’t doing that again.”

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Mt. Ararat (16-4) took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, scoring twice on fielder’s choice plays on which Biddeford barely missed getting an out — once at the plate and the other on a potential inning-ending double play. A third run came home on a two-out error.

The Tigers made up that deficit in the third inning on a booming two-run triple by Gavin Haggett and an RBI single by Langevin.

“We talk so much about just staying steady, being tough, and that’s exactly how we did it. It looked grim a little bit at first and the kids just never quit,” Biddeford coach Keith Leblanc said.

Neither did Mt. Ararat. The Eagles’ bottom of the order got another three-run rally started in the fourth when Caden Chase doubled and No. 9 hitter Aidan Ramsay (two RBI) drove him in with a single. After a two-out walk to Ethan Berry, Jesse Bowker drove a two-run double down the line in left.

At that point, six different Eagles had one hit against Dore, a sophomore control specialist who had allowed 24 hits in 49 1/3 innings entering the game.

Mt. Ararat starter Kaleb Hussey appeared on his way to a quick fourth inning before Blais’ routine fly ball to center with two outs and one on was dropped.

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Biddeford made Mt. Ararat pay. Landon Sirois (1 for 2, two runs) drew a four-pitch walk, prompting a pitching change. Dom Smith, who went 4 for 4, fell behind 0-2 against reliever Eligh Imrie but was able to carve an opposite-field two-run single to shallow right, cutting the lead to 6-5.

“We didn’t execute as much as we needed to today,” said Mt. Ararat coach Brett Chase. “They made a habit of putting the ball in play and made us make plays.”

Blais, a slender junior batting in the No. 9 spot, started the winning rally with a perfect bunt up the third-base line.

“I did that all on my own. The third baseman was playing back and I knew I was a fast kid, so I laid it down,” Blais said.

Sirois followed with a swinging bunt that stayed barely fair. Smith beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases. Haggett hit a high chopper to the right side of the infield, scoring Blais. Langevin followed with his sacrifice fly.

“Every game, you just have to keep working. You can’t give up. That was just a lot of fun,” Smith said.

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Smith and Haggett both had eight hits over their final three high school games, each a one-run win.

The sixth-inning rally put Dore in position to finish things out, and he got significant help from Blais, who ran down a Bowker drive to the left-center gap and made a diving catch for the second out.

“I wasn’t sure I had it but I kept pursuing it. Once I heard Dom (Smith, the center fielder) wasn’t saying anything, I called it,” Blais said. “I knew it was right in the web and I was like, ‘perfect, I have it.'”

Dore, 5-0 as a starter, finished his six-hitter by getting a pop-up to shortstop Travis Edgerton, setting off a celebration 41 years in the making.

“It was a team thing. Everybody believed in me. Just play through adversity and everything else,” Dore said. “Just stayed through it the whole course. I wasn’t doing my best as I normally do, but this game, I kind of just battled.”

Steve Craig reports primarily about Maine’s active high school sports scene and, more recently, the Portland Hearts of Pine men's professional soccer team. His first newspaper job was covering Maine...

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