Vikings sail past Shires, win 4-0 Searsport wins with Nickerson’s 4-hitter

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BANGOR – Nobody had shut out the Houlton High School baseball team this season.

Until Tuesday, that is.

Searsport High School senior righty Matt Nickerson fired a four-hitter, striking out seven and walking two, and his mates played errorless ball behind him as the Vikings won their first Eastern Maine Class C baseball title since 1999, 4-0 at Mansfield Stadium.

Fourth seed Searsport, now 14-5, will meet St. Dominic of Auburn in Saturday’s 5 p.m. state championship game at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

Second seed Houlton concluded a 13-4 season.

Nickerson never had more than one runner on base in an inning until the seventh, when the Shires had two on with one out.

He threw 99 pitches, 62 for strikes.

“He was the best pitcher we’ve faced all year,” said Houlton senior right fielder Aaron Fitzpatrick. “He had a good fastball, a slider and he had a good change of speed on his curve.”

Houlton pitcher Hunter Caron said Nickerson “changed speeds well” and kept them off-balance.

Nickerson said his curve was his “best pitch.

“My slider wasn’t working as well as it did the last time out so I used it as an off-speed pitch,” said Nickerson. “I didn’t use my fastball until I got two strikes. That was my out pitch.”

Searsport catcher Casey Ashey said Nickerson’s curve had “good action” and he still had good pop on his fastball in the late innings.

The offensive star for the Vikings was senior first baseman Sean Johnson, who had a pair of run-scoring singles.

In the first inning, Johnson punched a two-out single into right to deliver Bob Wilson, who had singled and moved to second when Caron hit Josh Nickerson with a pitch.

Nickerson helped his cause in the second when he belted a two-out double to the base of the left-center field fence to score Ashey, who bounced a two-out single down the third- base line.

The Vikings added two insurance runs in the fifth.

Matt Nickerson walked to open the inning and stole second.

Caleb Ashey delivered him with a sharp single to left center. Ashey moved up when Josh Nickerson blooped a single into left center and he scored when Johnson lined a single to left center.

“They hit the ball pretty well and you’ve got to give their pitcher credit. They deserved to win,” said Caron.

Houlton had just one hitter in scoring position through the first six innings and that came about when Caron rifled a triple to right center with one out.

But Fitzpatrick’s safety squeeze bunt went right back to Nickerson, forcing Caron to return to third, and Harry Austin flied to center.

Mike Cleary became the first Houlton hitter leading off an inning to reach base when he singled to open the seventh.

Josh McGuire drew a one-out walk but Nickerson got a groundout and strikeout to end the game.

“We knew we needed to play flawless defense and get timely hits and that’s what we did,” said Johnson.

Matt Nickerson and Johnson had two hits each for Searsport.

Beside Caron’s triple and Cleary’s single, Houlton also received base hits from Corey Lewis and Harry Austin.

Defensively, shortstop Caleb Ashey made a great over-the -head catch on Ryan Hill’s pop up to open the third, just before Caron tripled. And the Vikings also turned a nice 3-6 double play.

Caron pitched well in defeat, allowing nine hits along with the four runs in six innings. He walked three and struck out six.

VIKINGS 4, SHIRETOWNERS 0

Searsport (14-5) Houlton (13-4)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Caron, p 3 0 1 0 M. Nickerson, p 3 1 1

Fitzpatrick, rf 3 0 0 0 Wilson, rf 4 0

Austin, c 3 0 1 0 Cal. Ashey, ss 4 1 1

Cleary, 2b 3 0 1 0 J. Nickerson, 3b 3 0

Lewis, 1b 3 0 1 0 Johnson, 1b 4 0 2

McGuire, ss 1 0 0 0 Cameron, dh 3 0 0

B. Austin, pr 0 0 0 0 Gallant, cf 0 0

Howland, lf 3 0 0 0 Adams, 2b 1 0 0

Stairs, dh 3 0 0 0 Ritchie, lf 3 0 0

Brown, cf 0 0 0 0 Cas. Ashey, c 3 1 0

Hill, 3b 2 0 0 0

Totals 24 0 4 0 Totals 28 4 9 4

Searsport 110 020 0 – 4

Houlton 000 000 0 – 0

E- Lewis; LOB- Searsport 7, Houlton 6; 2B- M. Nickerson; 3B- Caron; DP- Johnson-Cal. Ashey; Fitzpatrick-Lewis; SB- M. Nickerson, Johnson

Searsport IP H R ER BB SO

M. Nickerson (W, 6-2) 7 4 0 0 2 7

Houlton IP H R ER BB SO

Caron (L, 5-3) 6 9 4 4 3 6

HBP- J. Nickerson (by Caron), Adams (by Caron); T- 1:45; ATT- 400 (est.)