BANGOR – Casey Ashey redeemed himself.

And that enabled Searsport’s small-ball offense to decide it.

Ashey’s two-out, run-scoring double in the top of the seventh tied it and three successful bunts keyed a four-run 11th inning that supplied Searsport with its third straight Eastern Maine Class C baseball championship by virtue of a 6-2 win over George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill Tuesday afternoon.

The second-seeded Vikings, 16-3, will take on 17-3 Western Maine titlist Livermore Falls in Saturday’s 5 p.m. state championship game at Mahaney Diamond in Standish.

Top seed George Stevens Academy finished up at 16-3 including two regular season wins over the Vikings.

Florida Southern-bound Nate Adams threw 10 innings of four-hit, two-run ball (one earned) to earn his third consecutive playoff victory over the Eagles. He had shut them out the previous two years including a no-hitter last season.

Adams, who struck out nine and walked two, threw 131 pitches of which 93 were strikes. He retired the last 14 hitters he faced.

“I had my fastball and slider working today and my curve was doing all right. At the beginning of the game I was a little shaky but I got stronger as the game progressed,” said Adams. “They’re a great team. They were the best team in the regular season.

“We just came out on top. We played small-ball and that really helped us out,” added Adams, who scored the tying run after singling sharply with two outs in the seventh.

Catcher Ashey’s double atoned for his throwing error on Lucas Marks’ steal of third in the bottom of the sixth which enabled GSA to take a 2-1 lead.

“I felt bad about the throw but that’s the breaks,” said Ashey. “Nate did a great job getting on base in front of me and I just wanted to put the ball in play. I tried to be aggressive and it worked out.”

Ashey said he was looking for a fastball from GSA righthander Peter Dickinson and he got one on the inner half of the plate.

“He struck me out on a fastball in the first inning,” said Ashey, who hit a 3-2 fastball.

Dickinson said there was a “miscommunication” between himself and catcher Marks.

“I wanted to throw a curve but [Marks] shook me off,” said Dickinson. “I figured [Ashey] was looking for a fastball. That was really frustrating.”

Dickinson also threw an exceptional game, allowing five hits and two runs (one earned) over seven innings with four strikeouts and two walks.

Bob Wilson triggered the decisive four-run 11th-inning rally by lining a single to left off reliever Caleb Hale.

Rocky Faunce sacrificed and reached on an ensuing throwing error that allowed Wilson to race to third.

Ethan McHatten put down a safety squeeze bunt to score Wilson, who slid under the tag.

“I knew coach [Dave Pepin] wanted me to lay one down. I knew I needed to seize the moment and not let the team down,” said McHatten.

After an unsuccessful safety squeeze, Adams squeezed home another run and Tom Cameron capped the rally with a two-run, bloop single to center.

Otto Black’s sacrifice fly staked GSA to a 1-0 lead but Searsport tied it in the sixth on an infield error, an errant pickoff, Matt Bagley’s single and an error on a squeeze.

GSA coach Danny Kane called Adams a “winner.

“He does a nice job. He comes right at you and says ‘You’ve got to beat me.’ You could tell he was bearing down later in the game. He got stronger,” said Kane. “We had many opportunities to win it. But when you score two runs in 11 innings and commit more errors (6) than the number of hits you get (5), you’re in trouble.”

Marks said Adams challenged them with his fastball “and we just didn’t hit it. It’s as simple as that. They find ways to win.”

Adams had two singles for Searsport while Josh Astbury doubled and singled twice for Searsport and Nick Saunders tripled and singled.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

990-8231

VIKINGS 6, EAGLES 2

(11 innings)

Searsport (16-3) George Stevens (16-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Adams, p-ss 5 2 2 1 Saunders, ss 5 0 0

Ashey, c 6 1 1 1 Ensworth, lf 5 1 0

Cameron, ss-p 6 0 1 2 Marks, c 4 0

Bagley, 1b 6 0 0 0 Astbury, 2b 4 0 0

Brassbridge, pr 0 0 0 0 Black, 3b 3 1

Kingsbury, cf 6 0 1 0 Hines, dh 3 0

Wilson, rf 4 1 1 0 Whitney, rf 0 0 0

Faunce, lf 3 0 1 0 Ingraham, 1b 4 0 0

McHatten, 2b 3 1 1 1 Dickinson, p 2 0 0

Pedrick, dh 3 0 0 0 Hale, p 2 0 0 0

Brazier, 3b 2 1 0 0 Walton, cf 4 0 0

Totals 44 6 8 5 Totals 36 2 5 1

Searsport 000 001 000 04 – 6

George Stevens 100 001 000 00 – 2

E- McHatten, Ashey; Marks 2, Saunders, Dickinson, Hale, Black; LOB- Searsport 11, George Stevens 6; 2B-Ashey; Astbury; 3B- Saunders; DP- Kingsbury-McHatten; S- McHatten 2, Faunce, Adams; Astbury; SF-Black; SB- Ensworth, Marks

Searsport IP H R ER BB SO

Adams (W, 6-1) 10 4 2 1 2 9

Cameron 1 1 0 0 0 1

George Stevens IP H R ER BB SO

Dickinson 7 5 2 1 2 4

Hale (L, 4-2) 4 4 4 0 0 1

HBP- Marks (by Adams); WP- Hale; PB- Marks; T- 2:45; ATT- 300 (est.)