Rams roll over Rogers, Eagles Deering wins 4th title in 5 years

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BANGOR – The bus carrying the Deering High School Rams to the state Class A baseball championship game in Bangor broke down in Augusta and another had to be summoned.

That was about the only thing that went wrong for Mike D’Andrea’s Rams.

Junior righthander Ryan Reid threw six innings of three-hit, one-run baseball and sophomore catcher Andrew Giobbi drove in three runs to lead Deering to a 9-1 victory over Mount Ararat of Topsham at Mansfield Stadium Monday night.

Deering won its fourth state championship in five years and finished the season 18-2. Mount Ararat concluded a 16-5 season.

The Rams reached Mount Ararat ace righty Mark Rogers for six hits and six runs, four earned, in 3 2/3 innings.

Rogers, who had allowed only two earned runs in 83 innings coming into the game, was victimized by a couple of costly miscues. He also hurt himself by issuing five walks and throwing four wild pitches.

Rogers was irritated by home plate umpire Kevin Joyce and what he considered a small strike zone. He was eventually ejected by Joyce in the fifth after taking a called third strike with the bases loaded and then tossing his bat.

The Portland-based Rams didn’t exactly rip the ball off Rogers, but they ran the bases aggressively and were opportunistic.

“He’s a great pitcher and any time you face an overpowering pitcher, you’ve got to find a way to score runs,” said Deering leadoff hitter Mike D’Andrea Jr.

D’Andrea opened the two-run third inning with a high chopping infield single in front of the plate.

Ryan Flaherty, son of University of Southern Maine coach Eddie Flaherty, then slapped an opposite-field single into left.

Scott Brown grounded to second baseman Ryan Doughty, who tagged Flaherty but missed a chance to complete a double play by throwing a one-hopper to first.

Giobbi grounded a ball up the middle and shortstop Ethan Ogilby ranged to his left only to have the ball go off his leg behind the second-base bag.

D’Andrea scored and, one out later, Josh Stowell delivered Giobbi with a ground-ball single to left.

The Rams expanded the lead to a comfortable 6-0 margin in the fourth.

Ryan Piacentini hit a routine fly ball to right that was lost in the lights by right fielder Andy Cantrell for a base hit.

Piacentini stole second, D’Andrea walked, and Flaherty sacrificed them to second and third.

Brown grounded to Doughty, but Doughty threw low to the plate and Piacentini scored.

Giobbi ripped an RBI single to left and two walks and four wild pitches produced the fifth and sixth runs.

“They’re a good-hitting team. They deserved it,” said Rogers. “I thought I had pretty good stuff the first couple of innings and my curveball was cutting quite a bit. But I thought I threw a lot of curves across the dish and I couldn’t get a called strike.”

“If you have to put the ball in the hitting zone, they’re going to hit it no matter how hard you throw it,” added Rogers, who wound up 11-2.

Rogers said his counterpart, Reid, was the best pitcher the Eagles have faced all year.

“He had good pop on his fastball and a good slider. We had some chances to push across more runs, but they’re a very sound defensive team,” said Rogers.

Deering played errorless ball.

Rogers’ father, Mount Ararat coach Craig Rogers, said, “We made a couple of inexperienced mistakes, and any time you make one or two mistakes, they come back to haunt you.”

Rogers threw 102 pitches over his 3 2/3 innings, 52 for strikes.

Reid struck out eight and walked three over six innings to improve to 8-1. He threw 59 strikes among his 90 pitches.

“You have to bring your ‘A’ game against a pitcher like that,” said Reid. “I had my curve working. It hadn’t worked well all year. I used a looser grip. I kept them off balance and was hitting my spots.”

Giobbi, Reid, and Stowell had two hits each for Deering, while Jim Ouellette singled twice and drove in Mount Ararat’s run in the fifth.

RAMS 9, EAGLES 1

Deering (18-2) Mount Ararat (16-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

D’Andrea, 2b 3 2 1 0 Ouellette, cf-p 4 0 1

d-Esposito 1 0 0 0 Doughty, 2b 4 0 0

Flaherty, ss 3 0 1 0 Rogers, p-ss 3 0 0

e-Burleson 1 0 0 0 Ward, lf 0 0 0

Brown, 1b 4 3 1 0 Galarneau,3b-p-cf 3 0

A. Giobbi, c 4 2 2 3 Cantrell, rf 3 0 0

Reid, p-cf 4 1 2 1 Mather, rf 0 0 0

Stowell, dh 3 0 2 1 Doherty, lf-ss 2 0 0

Powers, cf 0 0 0 0 a-Bartlett 0 1 0

c-Strang 0 0 0 0 Strong, 1b 1 0 0

Skillin, lf 1 0 1 1 Williams, c 1 0 0

Dvilinsky, 3b 4 0 0 0 Ogilby, ss 1 0

Piacentini, rf 2 1 1 0 Snider, 3b-ss 2 0

b-Moore 1 0 0 0

Totals 31 9 11 6 Totals 24 1 4 1

a-ran for Doherty in 5th inning; b-struck out for Piacentini in 6th; c-ran for Stowell in 6th; d-struck out for D’Andrea in 7th; e- grounded out for Flaherty in 7th

Deering 002 401 2 ? 9

Mount Ararat 000 010 0 ? 1

E?Doughty, Ogilby; LOB?Deering 11, Mount Ararat 6; 2B?A. Giobbi, Reid; 3B?Brown; S?Flaherty; SB?D’Andrea 2, A. Giobbi, Stowell, Piacentini

Deering IP H R ER BB SO

Reid (W, 8-1) 6 3 1 1 3 8

N. Giobbi 1 1 0 0 2 0

Home IP H R ER BB SO

Rogers (L, 11-2) 3 2/3 6 6 4 5 6

Galarneau 3 5 3 3 1 3

Ouellette 1/3 0 0 0 1 0

WP? Rogers 4, Ouellette; T? 2:15; ATT? 500 (est.)