Kevin Alley planned on pitching only seven innings that Tuesday night.

In the end, the lefthander threw 169 pitches before taking matters into his own hands with a bases-loaded, 10th-inning triple, sending Jonesport-Beals to a 9-4 win over Fort Fairfield in the Eastern Maine Class D baseball championship on June 13 in Bangor.

Four days later, he threw 49 strikes with 83 pitches during four innings before retiring his pitching glove in the state championship game against Richmond in Standish.

Alley then moved to shortstop, finishing the game with a 3-for-3 batting performance, including a double. Jonesport-Beals won the title 11-9.

“The plan was to go seven innnings (at the Eastern Maine game), but it was more than that,” Alley recalled of the 14 strikeout, four-walk performance. “It wasn’t too bad. I don’t get nervous when I’m pitching.

“It worked out that it was tied at the end (of seven innings), and Coach (Blaine Steeves) asked me how I felt and I told him I was fine,” Alley said. “Right when I first came off the field after we won, someone told me I threw 169 pitches, and I said `wow.’ ”

Alley’s performance through June earned him recognition as the Bangor Daily News’ Athlete of the Month.

“This kid’s kind of a tough guy,” said Steeves, Jonesport-Beals’ first-year coach. “He’s a competitor. He hates losing. He’s a perfectionist in a way.

“It’s weird,” Steeves continued. “I’ve seen him upset, but I’ve never seen him pumped up.

“He can go 6-for-6 in a day and he’s Kevin, and he can go 0-for-3 and he’s still the same Kevin,” Steeves said. “He’s about as professional in attitude as I’ve ever seen in a kid.”

Despite the cool exterior, Alley said he was excited.

“As the innings went on, I just got really pumped up about it,” he said of the Eastern Maine victory.

“I just loved that game,” Alley continued. “Every time I went out there, my friends said I was throwing harder. I just felt like I was in the groove.”

Not much budged Alley from the groove last month. He did not lose a game he started on the mound, finishing 10-2 for the season, and he batted over .400 through the playoffs as the 17-2 Royals won their first state baseball championship.

The son of a career Navy man, Alley entered Jonesport-Beals High School as a junior and immediately made an impact with his tailing fastball and curve.

He also had to switch positions.

“My coach started me off (playing Little League) as a left-hander,” Alley explained. “Every year, I said I wanted to pitch and play first base. Last year, when we moved out here, I went to the first tryout and they moved me to shortstop.

“It was hard at first, but I got used to it and I liked it,” he said. The only thing that was difficult was the double play because I had to turn my whole body around, but I adjusted.”

After moving from California, Alley had to get used to a number of things Down East.

“It’s a big difference,” he said laughing. “The fields are different, too. You know that reddish-clay dirt on the infield at the state game (at St. Joseph’s College in Standish)? That’s what they were like, and the infield grass in California was like putting greens.”