BUCKSPORT – Two teams with high postseason ambitions squared off in a schoolboy baseball regular season opener Saturday – with almost no outdoor preseason preparation to fine-tune their games.

And while the defenses weren’t necessarily in late-season form, the outcome was predictably close as George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill edged Bucksport 10-7.

GSA, whose four-year run as Eastern Maine Class C champion was ended by Searsport last spring, served notice that it will again be a contender by pounding out 14 hits in surging past Bucksport, the reigning Eastern Maine Class B king.

“It’s a huge dose of confidence,” said GSA coach Dan Kane, “but we’ve just got so far to go. As the game went on we made a lot of mistakes, and we’ve got to make less and less as we go on. Hopefully by the end of it we’ll be real dangerous.”

Josh Astbury had three singles for the Eagles, while Nate Hynes hit a two-run homer and an RBI single, Lucas Marks singled twice, and Nick Saunders added three RBIs.

“We haven’t been outside that much, so it surprised me how well we hit,” said Marks, a junior in his third year as GSA’s starting catcher. “The other thing was that everybody contributed to it. It was a real good team win.”

The Eagles overcame six errors to earn the victory as pitchers Caleb Hale and Peter Dickinson combined to scatter nine hits while yielding only two walks.

“What I told them was to go out and challenge the hitters and throw strikes,” Kane said. “That’s the first and foremost thing they’ve got to do, and they did that. They didn’t get themselves in trouble by going out and walking the bases full and things like that.”

George Stevens took control with six runs in the top of the fifth inning to take an 8-3 lead. Bucksport helped with four errors during that uprising, as the first nine GSA batters all reached base.

Saunders and Marks each had a two-run single, and Hynes followed with an RBI single as the Eagles rallied from a 3-2 deficit.

Bucksport scored four unearned runs in the bottom of the inning to draw within 8-7, a rally aided by an RBI triple by Chris Maguire and an RBI single by Brandon Blair.

But Dickinson came on to get the final out of the inning and went on to pitch 2 1/3 innings of one-hit, scoreless relief.

Hynes provided GSA some insurance with his home run to center in the top of the seventh after teammate Morgan Lawson was hit by a pitch to open the inning.

“It was a fastball in the zone and I just hit it,” said Hynes. “When I saw [the outfielder] running back, I figured if he stopped he would get it. But he just kept running.”

Maguire finished with a double and a single for Bucksport, while Cam Wadleigh added three RBIs on a single, a sacrifice fly, and a fielder’s choice.

“We misplayed seven or eight balls that could have been outs today, and that’s not going to happen all the time, I know that,” said Bucksport coach Tiger Stewart, whose team followed up a season-opening loss to GSA last spring with 18 straight wins en route to its regional title.

“I told the kids that we just need to relax and realize that we didn’t play that well and we still had a chance to win the game, and against a team of that quality that’s a pretty good sign,” said Stewart.

EAGLES 10, GOLDEN BUCKS 7

George Stevens (1-0) Bucksport (0-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Saunders, ss 3 1 1 3 Jackson, ss 3 2 0

Astbury, 2b 3 1 3 1 Robbins, cf 3 1 1

Marks, c 4 1 2 2 Maguire, p-3b 3 1 1

Lawson, rf 3 1 0 0 Wadleigh, c 3 0 3

Hynes, 3b 4 1 2 3 Freeman, rf 4 1 0

Walton, cf 4 0 1 0 P. Dedmon, lf 4 1 0

Ingraham, 1b 2 1 1 0 Blair, dh 2 0 1

Ober, pr 0 1 0 0 Bisher, 1b 1 0 0

Warden-Black, 1b 2 0 1 0 Klenowski, pr 0 0

Pickering, dh 4 2 2 0 Fish, 3b 3 0

Hale, p-lf 0 0 0 0 Bowden, 3b 0 0 0

Dickinson, lf-p 3 1 0 0 Cooke, 2b-p 3 0

Whitney, ph 1 0 1 0

Totals 33 10 14 9 Totals 29 7 9 6

George Stevens Acad. 002 060 2 – 10

Bucksport 102 040 0 – 7

E-Saunders 3, Lawson, Hynes, Dickinson; Bowden 2, Wadleigh 2; LOB-GSA 5, Bucksport 6; 2B-Warden-Black; Robbins, Cooke; 3B-Maguire; HR-Hynes; DP-GSA 2, Bucksport 2; S-Dickinson; Jackson; SF-Wadleigh; SB-P. Dedmon

George Stevens IP H R ER BB SO

Hale (W, 1-0) 4 2/3 8 7 2 1 0

Dickinson (S, 1) 2 1/3 1 0 0 1 2

Bucksport IP H R ER BB SO

Maguire (L, 0-1) 6 1/3 14 10 8 0 5

Cooke 2/3 0 0 0 0 1

HBP-Astbury (by Maguire), Lawson (by Maguire); WP-Hale; T-2:10; ATT-175