BLUE HILL – Bucksport and George Stevens Academy began the high school baseball season with a slugfest that reflected a lack of outdoor preseason practice for both teams.

They ended the regular season Wednesday with a pitcher’s duel, with senior righthanders Chris Maguire and Todd Freeman combining on a two-hitter as Bucksport earned a 1-0 win to secure its hold on first place in the final Eastern Maine Class B Heal Point ratings.

The Golden Bucks will begin the defense of their 2006 Eastern B title next week with a 14-2 record after avenging a 10-7 opening-day loss to GSA.

“The experience is a lot different this year,” said Bucksport first baseman Miles Bisher. “Last year we were kind of riding high, and nobody expected us to do anything, but it’s a whole different ballgame when you have a target on your back. We found that out with [losses to] Ellsworth and these guys to start the season.

“I think that has us more ready and on our toes now. We know what to expect, and we’re confident enough because we know we’ve been there and can do it.”

Despite suffering its third straight loss, GSA still could finish as high as third in Eastern C with its 9-7 record.

“We’ve just got to keep battling,” said Eagles coach Dan Kane. “We’ve got a lot of guys who are first-year varsity players and some younger players and they’re still finding their way. We won a lot of games ugly early, and now we’re playing better, but offensively we’re not catching the breaks we caught before. We’re going to have to keep working on it and take it inning by inning.”

GSA’s offense had little success against Maguire and Freeman, who didn’t walk a batter. Maguire allowed no hits and struck out three in three innings before Freeman scattered two hits over the final four innings.

“It was important for us to get Chris out of there because he’s thrown a lot of pitches this year,” said Bucksport coach Tiger Stewart. “This was his seventh start, and every other time he’d gone over 100 pitches so we wanted to limit that.

“We also wanted to put Todd in a situation where the game’s on the line. Today was a chance to put him in a playoff situation, and he did a heck of a job.”

Freeman (2-0) induced nine ground-ball outs and didn’t allow a runner past first base.

“Todd’s curveball was amazing today,” said Bucksport catcher Cam Wadleigh. “He was mixing it up. We’d come with a fastball inside and then with a curve ball. His fastball goes outside-in pretty hard, so the powerful lefties they have couldn’t touch it.”

GSA got its own stellar pitching performance from junior righthander Josh Astbury (3-2). He scattered five singles in a complete-game effort with nine strikeouts, two walks and no earned runs allowed.

“Josh kept them off balance and got some key strikeouts,” said Kane. “That’s about as well as he’s thrown all year. He’s been pretty consistent for us, I just wish we could have caught a break somewhere offensively to give him some help.”

Bucksport scored the game’s only run in the third. Matt Jackson drew a one-out walk and scored on a double-error by GSA after a single to center by Maguire.

GOLDEN BUCKS 1, EAGLES 0

Bucksport (14-2) George Stevens (9-7)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Jackson, ss 3 1 0 0 Astbury, p 3 0 0

Robbins, cf 3 0 1 0 Dickinson, ss 3 0 0

Maguire, p-3b 3 0 2 0 Marks, c 3 0

Wadleigh, c 3 0 1 0 Warden-Black, 3b 3 0

Wood, pr 0 0 0 0 Hines, 1b 3 0 0

Freeman, rf-p 3 0 1 0 Whitney, dh 2 0

P. Dedmon, lf 3 0 0 0 Lawson, 2b 0 0

Klenowski, dh 3 0 0 0 Pickering, ph 1 0

Bisher, 1b 0 0 0 0 Hale, rf 3 0 0

Fish, 3b-rf 2 0 0 0 Ensworth, lf 2 0 0

Cooke, 2b 3 0 0 0 Walton, cf 2 0 0

Totals 26 1 5 0 Totals 25 0 2 0

Bucksport 001 000 0 – 1

George Stevens 000 000 0 – 0

E-Fish, Jackson; Lawson, Walton, Dickinson; LOB-Bucksport 6, GSA 4; SB-Maguire, Wood; Dickinson

Bucksport IP H R ER BB SO

Maguire 3 0 0 0 0 3

Freeman (W, 2-0) 4 2 0 0 0 0

George Stevens IP H R ER BB SO

Astbury (W, 3-2) 7 5 1 0 2 9

PB-Wadleigh; T-1:38; ATT-100 (est.)