St. Peter, Caribou top Bapst

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BANGOR – Caribou High School righthander Griffin St. Peter didn’t get past the second inning in his last start and John Bapst High School’s Zev Myerowitz ripped a two-run homer off him in the bottom of the first inning of Thursday night’s Eastern Maine Class B Northeast Division final.

But St. Peter settled down to retire the next 10 hitters and then pitched out of jams in the last three innings innings to lead his Vikings to a 7-4 triumph over the defending state B champion Crusaders from Bangor.

Fifth seed Caribou, 10-8, will play the winner of Friday’s Southeast Division final between Winslow and Camden Hills in Saturday’s Eastern B title game.

Northeast Division top seed John Bapst concluded an 11-6-1 season.

St. Peter allowed 11 hits and three earned runs while striking out three and walking just one. He threw 109 pitches of which 67 were strikes.

He stranded eight Crusader runners over the last three innings, using his sneaky fastball and sweeping slow curve to work his way out of the jams.

“The home plate umpire [Hawk Anderson] was giving us the outside corner so that’s where I was trying to keep the ball,” said St. Peter.

He said he was “really nervous” after being lifted in the second inning of his team’s eventual 15-14 playoff win over Orono on Monday.

But St. Peter said he benefited from a conversation he had with third base umpire Mike Bordick when he was standing on third during a Crusader pitching change.

“I told Mr. Bordick that he had been bad luck for me. He had been the umpire for two of my starts and they were my worst two outings of the year,” explained St. Peter. “So he told me he was going to help me out and he gave me some advice on how to throw my curve. It worked.”

He also credited his defense, saying “I couldn’t have done it without them. ”

Caribou took the lead for good with a pair of runs in the second inning to snap a 2-2 tie and they added two more in the third.

After run-scoring singles by Nic Chasse and Justin Selfridge produced a pair of unearned first-inning runs which were answered by Myerowitz’s long blast to left, consecutive singles by Travis Beaulieu, Bryce McCrossin and St. Peter opened the second inning and snapped the tie.

Travis Snell’s sacrifice fly made it 4-2 and chased starter Keith Nason in favor of lefty Cole McElwain.

In the third, singles by Chasse and Selfridge were followed by a soft two-out RBI single to left by McCrossin, whose defensive swing on an 0-2 pitch got the job done.

“Coach [Jim Saucier] keeps telling us to protect the plate and put the ball in play,” said McCrossin.

A passed ball produced the sixth run.

Conrad Brown singled home a fifth-inning run for John Bapst but Caribou catcher Ryan Cousins had gunned down a potential base stealer to prevent a potential big inning.

Caribou got that one back in the sixth on singles by Beaulieu and McCrossin and two errors.

The Crusaders got an unearned run in the sixth but left the bases loaded as they did again in the seventh.

McCrossin had three hits for Caribou while Chasse, Selfridge and Beaulieu had two hits as did John Bapst’s Myerowitz, Pat Healy and James Strout.

VIKINGS 7, CRUSADERS 4

Caribou (10-8) John Bapst (11-6-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Bouchard, ss 4 0 0 0 Strout, 2b 4 0 0

Snell, cf 3 1 0 1 Tremble, 3b 4 1 0

Fowler, dh 4 0 0 0 Means, ss 4 0 0

J. Chasse, 2b 0 0 0 0 Z. Myerowitz, 1b 2

N. Chasse, 3b 4 2 2 1 Chapman, dh 3 0

Selfridge, 1b 4 1 2 1 Healy, rf 4 0

Cousins, c 4 0 0 0 Jellison, lf 3 0 0

Beaulieu, lf 4 2 2 0 B. Snyder, cf 3 0 0

McCrossin, rf 3 1 3 1 Brown, c 3 1

St. Peter, p 2 0 1 1

Totals 32 7 10 5 Totals 32 4 11 3

Caribou 222 001 0 ? 7

John Bapst 200 011 0 ? 4

E?Myerowitz 2, McElwain, Brown; N. Chasse, J. Chasse; LOB?Caribou 6, John Bapst 8; 2B?Strout; HR?Myerowitz; S?St. Peter; SF?Snell; SB?St. Peter

Caribou IP H R ER BB SO

St. Peter (W, 3-5) 7 11 4 3 1 3

John Bapst IP H R ER BB SO

Nason (L, 3-1) 1 2/3 5 4 2 0 0

McElwain 5 1/3 5 3 1 0 5

WP?Nason 3; PB?Brown; T?2:05; ATT?90 (est.)