From Westbrook to Williamsport Little Leaguers’ run voted top sports story

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They lost their first three games in pool play in the New England Little League championships.

But the resilient Maine champion Westbrook Little League All-Stars won their final game and a three-team tiebreaker [fewest runs allowed] to nab the final semifinal berth.

In the semis, they ousted previously unbeaten Farmington, Conn., 6-4. Farmington had outscored its four opponents 39-2 including a 5-0 win over Westbrook.

Then they beat Cranston West (R.I.) 7-2 to become the first Maine team to play in the Little League World Series since 1971 and just the third to ever make it to Williamsport (Pa.).

That earned manager Rick Knight and his team the distinction of being named the 2005 WZON/Bangor Daily News Maine Sports Story of the Year.

The Westbrook Little Leaguers earned 47 percent of the vote compiled by WZON and the Bangor Daily News. Brewer High’s first football state title since 1970 finished second with 30 percent of the vote and Hampden Academy’s first state boys basketball championship, coming from the No. 9 seed in the last Eastern Maine A tournament at the Bangor Auditorium, earned 16 percent.

Record-setting University of Maine goalie Jimmy Howard’s August decision to pass up his senior year and sign with the Detroit Red Wings collected 4 percent of the vote and the University of Maine football team’s journey to play Division I-A the University of Nebraska in front of 77,000 accumulated 3 percent.

“They were certainly a special team. They were a fun team to coach. It was quite a year,” said Knight, who had previously managed several of his players to a state championship in the 10-year-old age group.

“I remember telling my assistant that this team [of 10-year-olds] was really special and they should have a real good shot to repeat as 12-year-olds,” said Knight.

In Williamsport, the Maine state champs lost to Lafayette, La. 3-2 after taking a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth and then dropped a 7-3 decision to Vista, Cal. after taking a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth.

In their final game, they beat Owensboro, Ky., 3-2 behind Joey Royer’s three shutout relief innings and Zach Collett’s homer, double and three RBIs.

Westbrook left fielder Reid Coulombe said the whole experience was “pretty amazing.

“It was the chance of a lifetime,” said Coulombe. “We knew we had good players and could win the states but we never dreamed we’d get to go to Williamsport.”

Knight said pitching and defense were the keys to their success. They made just two errors in the World Series.

Sean Murphy, Nick Finocchiaro, Royer and Zack Gardiner gave Knight four outstanding arms although relief ace Gardiner couldn’t pitch in Williamsport due to a sore arm.

“Zack is a great closer. We could have gone 3-0 in Williamsport [in pool play] and made it into the playoffs if he had been healthy,” said Coulombe.

Brewer’s Witches gave outgoing coach Ed Ortego, the architect behind their football rejuvenation, a gold ball with an impressive playoff run that included a 21-10 Eastern Maine B championship game win over a Winslow team they hadn’t beaten since 1991 and a dominant performance in the 33-0 win over York in the state final.

“Coach Ortego made us believe we could do anything if we tried hard enough,” said senior fullback and linebacker Ben Caldwell, one of three 1,000-yard rushers along with Ricky Porter and Zach Wilson.

With an ‘inch by inch’ motto, a punishing running game and tremendous line play, the Witches peaked at the right time.

“We went out every day and worked on things until we could do them in our sleep,” said two-way junior tackle Devin Fitzpatrick. “And our team was so close.”

Fitzpatrick and Caldwell said a 21-0 loss to Winslow on Oct. 14 gave them an important wake-up call and two-way lineman Matt Wilson said a 20-14 win over rival Belfast the following week triggered their title run.

Caldwell added that a motivational talk from Ralph Payne, the star running back on the unbeaten 1970 Class A championship team, and a dinner served to them by members of that 1970 team the night before the state game were “inspirational.”

Hampden Academy’s basketball team also peaked in the playoffs.

A stunning 63-38 preliminary round win over No. 8 Mount Blue in Farmington gave the Broncos a healthy boost of confidence and they went on to shock No. 1 Bangor (44-40), which had beaten them three times, in the quarters; Brewer (53-34) in the semis and Oxford Hills of South Paris (47-40) in the EM final before topping Deering of Portland (59-49) in the state game.

“Most people expected [Mount Blue] to beat us but after we beat them by 25 we were pretty confident,” said 6-foot-10 center Jordan Cook, the Eastern A tourney’s MVP.

Cook added that during the year “we figured out our roles and what we had to do to win.”

Coach Russ Bartlett said the team benefited from exceptional senior leadership provided by Pat Moran, Josh McNutt and Blaine Meehan.

“They were tough kids who played with a sense of urgency,” said Bartlett.

The Broncos also had a shot-blocking phenom with a nice scoring touch in Cook and the team played smothering man-to-man defense that allowed just 40.2 points per game in post-season play.

“We were all on the same page defensively. We all knew what we were supposed to do,” said Cook.