STANDISH – After striking out in his first three at-bats, about the only thing Zev Myerowitz thought he had going for him was a Brooks Robinson-like defensive stop in Saturday night’s Class B state championship baseball game.

But the best was still to come.

John Bapst Memorial High School’s junior first baseman capped what he called an entirely forgettable 2001 season with an unforgettable peformance on St. Joseph’s College’s Mahaney Diamond turf as he blasted a game-winning, two-run triple in the eighth inning and followed that up with a game-saving defensive stab at first that robbed the batter of an extra-base hit and ended the game.

Myerowitz’s heroics in the extra-inning thriller gave the 16-4 Crusaders a 3-1 victory over defending state champ Maranacook of Readfield (18-2) and gave John Bapst of Bangor its first-ever state baseball crown.

“I haven’t had the best season this year. After those three K’s, I didn’t know if I’d be able to produce anything,” said a grinning Myerowitz. “Last year, I had four or five home runs and was first team all-state. This year I had no long balls and no recognition either, but that’s all right, I’d rather be on the state championship John Bapst baseball team.”

It looked like Myerowitz would have his first homer as he caught hold of a 3-2 fastball from Maranacook ace Greg Creek with one out in the eighth and runners at first and second and flared it deep to left-center field. At first, the shot looked like a sure home run, but it gradually began to fall and landed a few feet short of the fence. Myerowitz never broke stride and reached third standing up.

“He threw me a fastball just a shade outside and waist-high,” he said. “I wished it had gone over the fence, but five feet short is just fine. It gave us what we needed.”

The triple broke a 1-1 tie and quickly elevated the lowered spirits of a Bapst team that had taken a 1-0 lead in the fifth on a one-out triple by James Strout and a passed ball only to watch the favored Black Bears tie the game via a hit batter with the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh.

“The momentum got deflated when they tied it and things weren’t going so well, but they responded well that very next inning,” said Bapst coach Mike Miragliuolo. “That was so big because they had taken the momentum and emotion away from us.”

After the hit batter, Miragliuolo brought in Andy Tremble to relieve starting pitcher Cole McElwain, whose superb effort included three hits, three walks and five strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings.

“He was the story. He just went out there and did everything he needed to do to get us a win,” Miragliuolo said. “Cole hadn’t allowed an earned run all year and I really feel for him because he really deserved this win.”

The sophomore lefthander’s coach shouldn’t feel too bad. After all, a state championship is a pretty nice consolation prize.

“This is the greatest feeling ever,” McElwain said. “We haven’t done before and we’re only losing one senior? This is just great.”

Tremble got a flyout to end Maranacook’s seventh-inning threat and retired the first two batters in the eighth before walking Justin Turmelle, who then moved to second on a balk call. After a conference at the mound, Tremble went 1-1 in the count to Maranacook’s Brian Cook before Cook ripped a fastball down the first-base line. Myerowitz lunged to his left, knocked the ball down behind the first-base bag, picked it up, and then dove to tag the bag ahead of Cook for the game’s final out and Tremble’s first win of the season.

The play was almost a repeat of a similar – albeit more impressive – theft of an extra-base hit by Myerowitz in the fourth off the bat of Seth Emery. Emery scalded the first pitch down the line, Myerowitz dove left, speared the ball with a one-handed stab, got up and tagged first himself for the out.

“When it’s like that, you can’t take any risk of letting that ball go by so I just threw my body in front of it and caught that ball,” he said.

Creek took his first loss after giving up seven hits in 7 1/3 innings.

“I figured if Greg was on, he’d do just what he did, but we struggled against their pitcher,” said coach Terry Creek, Greg’s father. “Coming in, I’d have said we’d win it 4 or 5 to 1, but we just couldn’t score.”

Miragliuolo said the win won respect for his program and region.

“This wasn’t just about us, this was about respect for the east because we knew we’d lost the other three state games,” he said.

Crusaders 3, Black Bears 1

(8 innings)

John Bapst (16-4) Maranacook (18-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Strout, 2b 4 1 1 0 Lemieux, cf-p 2 0 1

Chapman, 3b 3 0 0 0 Emery, ss 3 0 0

Means, ss 4 1 2 0 Creek, p-2b 3 0 0

Tremble, rf-p 4 1 1 0 Muniz, 1b 4 0

A.Myerowitz, 1b 4 0 1 2 Turmelle, lf 2 0

Snyder, cf-rf 4 0 0 0 Hunter, dh 2 0

Healy, dh 3 0 1 0 Cook, dh 2 1 0

Keefe, lf 0 0 0 0 Kenny, 2b-rf 0 0 0

Gray, c 3 0 0 0 Buckley, c 2 0 0

Jellison, lf-cf 3 0 1 0 a-Lake 1 0 0

Cloutier, 3b 2 0 0 0

b-Ryerson 0 0 0 0

Harger, rf-cf 2 0 1 0

Totals 32 3 7 2 Totals 25 1 3 1

a-flied out for Buckley in the seventh, b-ran for Cloutier in the seventh

John Bapst 000 010 02 ? 3

Maranacook 000 000 10 ? 1

E? Means, Emery; LOB? John Bapst 8, Maranacook 8; 2B? Jellison; 3B? Strout, Myerowitz; DP? Strout-Myerowitz; SB? Cook

John Bapst IP H R ER BB SO

McElwain 6 2/3 3 1 1 3 5

Tremble (W,1-0)1/2 0 0 0 1 0

Maranacook IP H R ER BB SO

Creek (L,4-1) 71/3 7 3 2 2 7

Lemieux 2/3 0 0 0 0 1

HBP? Healy by Lemieux; Turmelle by McElwain, Emery by McElwain, Cloutier by McElwain, Lemieux by McElwain; WP? McElwain; BK? McElwain, Tremble; Creek; PB? Buckley; T?2:15; ATT? 386