Rams butting heads for A baseball crown

Two of the state’s storied high school baseball programs meet today – but only one will come away a state champion.

Bangor and Deering of Portland, two teams seen as preseason favorites to battle for the Class A state title, indeed play for that crown in a 2 p.m. start from Morton Field in Augusta.

Each school has won nine state championships since 1970, one more than Portland and the most for any Class A program.

Bangor is the defending state champion, having rallied past Portland 4-3 in the 2006 final. Deering has won five titles in the last eight years, including three straight from 1999 through 2001 and back-to-back crowns in 2003 and 2004. Deering defeated Bangor 7-2 in their most recent meeting in 2000.

Bangor (19-0) brings a 30-game winning streak into the championship game after earning a hard-fought 4-0 victory over Brewer in Wednesday’s Eastern A final.

“Our kids have won so much that they’re happy they won the Eastern Maine final but it’s kind of just a steppingstone to get to the state game,” said Jeff Fahey, who is 106-23 in his seven years as Bangor’s head coach. “For us, we want to win another state championship.”

The Rams have epitomized balance during their pursuit of the program’s first undefeated season since 1985.

Seven of the team’s nine starters are batting more than .400. Leading the way is senior catcher Gordon Webb (.569, 3 HR, 29 RBI), who Thursday was named a finalist for the 16th annual Dr. John Winkin Mr. Baseball Award.

Other top hitters include senior left fielder Alex Gallant (.567, 2 HR, 24 RBI), junior pitcher-shortstop Ian Edwards (.491, 3 HR, 24 RBI) and junior right fielder Kyle Vanidestine (.484, 3 HR, 31 runs scored, 17 stolen bases).

Edwards (7-0 with four shutouts) is expected to get the pitching start against Deering. The righthander worked three scoreless innings in the EM final before giving way to sophomore Jordan Clarke in order to remain eligible to pitch in the state championship game.

“Our quest all season has been to get there,” said Edwards. “Once we get there, baseball is a crazy sport and anything can happen. We’re confident, but we need to go and play our game and hopefully it will be good enough.”

Overall the Bangor pitching staff has thrown seven shutouts this spring and has allowed more than two runs in a game only four times this season. The Rams have earned 10 of their 19 victories by the 10-run rule.

“It’s amazing,” said senior center fielder Tom Crews (.453). “We’re defending champs, and then we’ve come back and proven ourselves the whole season going undefeated. Now we’ve just got to go and defend the state title.”

While Bangor starts just three seniors – Webb, Gallant and Crews – and has only five fourth-year players on its roster, Deering is even younger, with just three seniors playing for 10th-year head coach Mike D’Andrea.

One of those seniors, righthander Ben Ives, is expected to pitch against Bangor. He went 4-1 with a 1.94 earned run average during the regular season, then had two wins and a save during the Western A playoffs.

Ives pitched a complete game as the Rams scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to earn a 5-3 semifinal win over Thornton Academy of Saco, then came back in relief Wednesday to earn the victory as Deering outlasted Portland 2-1 in eight innings in the WM championship game.

He also earned a save in the quarterfinals, when Deering edged South Portland 2-1.

Ives was one of four Deering players who earned All-Southern Maine Activities Association first-team honors this spring.

Sophomore pitcher Taylor Candage went 6-0 for a staff that allowed more than two runs in a game only twice this season and was named the SMAA pitcher of the year, but he won’t be eligible Saturday after working five innings in the WM final.

Sophomore first baseman Reagan Flaherty, the son of University of Southern Maine coach Ed Flaherty and the brother of Vanderbilt University shortstop and former Deering star Ryan Flaherty, batted .444 during the regular season and compiled a 5-0 pitching record to earn first-team honors at first base and second-team status on the mound.

Yet another sophomore, outfielder Jack Heary (.468, 19 RBI, 20 SB) also was named to the first team, while classmate Matt Watson batted .317 as Deering’s starting catcher.

“We’ve got to play,” said Webb. “Deering’s got good hitters all the way up the lineup and they’ve got good pitching. It’s going to be a battle all the way to the end. We’ve got to come ready to repeat, and that’s our one goal, to repeat the state title.”

Deering (17-1) will carry a nine-game winning streak into the state final against a motivated Bangor team seeking to win back-to-back state championships for the first time since the Rams won four in a row from 1994 through 1997.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said Bangor’s Gallant, who hit a game-tying two-run home run and a game-winning RBI single in last year’s state game. “Not many kids make it to the playoffs, let alone the state championship game at the end of their senior year. It’s going to be fun, but we’re not going to be happy unless we win it.”