Junior righthander Ashton Hammond pitched a complete-game five-hitter as Saint Dominic of Auburn won its second consecutive Class D baseball state championship with a 4-1 victory over Bangor Christian in the title game played at Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium on Tuesday night.
Hammond struck out seven batters and walked two in outdueling Bangor Christian ace Jason Libby, facing more than four batters in just one inning of his 107-pitch performance.
Hammond added a double and two runs scored as part of an eight-hit offense that also included a double and single by freshman leftfielder Riley Daigle.
St. Dominic, which had just one senior on its active roster, concluded its season with a 14-5 record while Bangor Christian — seeking its first state title since winning three in a row in 2012, 2013 and 2014 — finished 16-2.
Libby, a senior righthander and finalist for the state’s Mr. Baseball award, worked the first six innings before reaching the 110-pitch limit, yielding one earned run on eight hits with eight strikeouts, two walks and two wild pitches.
Ryan Libby, Jason’s brother, had two of the Patriots’ five hits, a double to deep left field in the first inning and a single to center in the third.
Jason Libby struck out the side in the top of the first, but St. Dominic took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.
Junior catcher Ridge Dionne led off the inning by pulling an 0-2 pitch for a single to right-center. Dionne stole second base, then advanced to third when Libby opted to throw Riley Daigle out at first on a comebacker to the mound.
Dionne scored on a well-executed squeeze bunt to the first-base side of home plate by Ethan Pelletier, with a high throw to first enabling Pelletier to reach base.
Pelletier reached second base on a wild pitch, then advanced to third on an infield hit toward third base by Ryan Bussiere and scored on Libby’s second wild pitch of the inning to make it 2-0.
Hammond drilled a double down the left-field line to open the Saints’ third inning, then stole third base before extending his team’s lead to 3-0 on Tim Ouellette’s sacrifice fly to right field.
Miles Frenette then reached second base on an infield error and stole third before being tagged out at the plate by Bangor Christian catcher Micah Robert on a third-strike squeeze bunt miss by Dionne to end the inning.
Bangor Christian mounted its first scoring bid in the bottom of the third, with Jon Benjamin drawing a leadoff walk and advancing to second when Jason Libby popped an opposite-field single toward the left-field line.
When Ryan Libby followed with a one-out single to center, the bases were loaded and veteran St. Dominic’s coach Bob Blackman paid Hammond a visit at the mound.
Cleanup batter Cole Payne then flared a pop-up up the middle that was tracked down by St. Dominic’s Curtis Wheeler as he was running a couple of steps into the outfield. That allowed Benjamin to tag up and score on the play, with an errant throw enabling the other runners to reach second and third.
Hammond escaped further damage, retiring Colton White on a comebacker to the mound to end the uprising with St. Dominic maintaining a 3-1 lead.
Back-to-back singles by Daigle and Pelletier along with a wild pitch and a stolen base by Pelletier gave Saint Dom’s runners at second and third with one out in the top of the fourth.
A walk to Bussiere loaded the bases, but Libby struck out Tom Casserly and got a leaping catch from White at first base to grab a liner by Hammond to end the inning.
Both teams displayed sharp defense midway through the contest. Daigle ended the Bangor Christian fourth with a diving catch of Benjamin’s sinking liner to left field, then Frenette ranged into left-center to track down a leadoff drive by Jason Libby in the bottom of the fifth and Hammond then caught a sharp line drive back to the mound by the next batter, Robert.
Daigle led off the St. Dominic sixth with a double to left center and reached third base on an infield grounder that produced the first out.
The Saints opted for the small-ball route again, attempting a squeeze play with Daigle racing home on the pitch. But Libby threw a perfect pitchout to Robert, who outran the retreating Daigle and tagged him out.
St. Dominic put two more runners aboard in the inning on a single by Curtis Wheeler and a walk to Bussiere before Libby got Casserly to line out to shortstop to keep Bangor Christian’s deficit at 3-1.
The Saints added an insurance run in the top of the seventh. Hammond reached on a dropped popup against Bangor Christian reliever Cole Payne, stole second and advanced to third on an infield groundout before scoring the game’s final run on a wild pitch.