BANGOR – Years pass and memories fade. For the former high school athlete, it is a frustrating fact of life. Accomplishments get put into the wrong chronological context and, a few decades later, they’re all a jumbled mess.
That shouldn’t be a problem for the seniors on the 2005 Class C state champion St. Dominic’s baseball team, the first state champion in the program’s history. Success came in such an orderly fashion that the quintet that helped lead the Saints to a 2-1 victory over two-time defending state champion George Stevens Academy on Saturday should keep things straight for a long, long time.
“Since my freshman year, we’ve gone a step further each time,” said Jake Albert, the Saints shortstop who drove in the winning run with a squeeze bunt in the third inning. “We lost in the early rounds my freshman year. Then we lost in the Western final my sophomore year, then the state final last year.”
“And now,” he concluded, “it’s great that we can top off our senior year with a win, the five of us.”
Those five seniors, Albert, Jon Rutt, Mike Griswold, Justin Fongemie and John Emerson, helped motivate the Saints this year, and the bitter taste left by coming up a game short last year helped motivate those five seniors.
“These guys, the first thing they said to me after that game (a 12-2 defeat to George Stevens) was It’s going to be our turn next year,'” said coach Allan Turgeon.
Nine underclassmen took that declaration to heart, too.
“We wanted payback this year. That was key for us,” said junior pitcher Brady Blackman, who picked up his eighth win of the year with his complete game Saturday. “We wanted this so bad this year, we worked harder than I think we ever have before.”
It showed in their performance. With a potent lineup and a solid pitching staff led by Blackman, Jon Rutt and Brent Cary, the Saints steamrolled through the Western Maine Conference. They won their first 13 games before dropping their regular season finale to Poland, a team that would go on to play in the Western Class B championship.
The post-season was practically deja vu. The Saints were on a collision course with GSA again, and they pushed aside Wiscasset, Jay and Telstar to get there, just as they had in 2004.
But, as they had resolved a year earlier, 2005 was going to be different. This time, they were ready for the Eagles, particularly crafty southpaw pitcher Dan Hilts, who beat them last year and was 2-0 in state championship games.
“Our coaches really did their homework this year. They knew everybody’s strengths and weaknesses,” Rutt said. “We took it from there. Brady pitched a heck of a game. We got runs when we needed them and we played great defense.”
Sounds like a complete team.
“The hallmark of this group is it was a complete team,” Turgeon said. “Everybody contributed, from the scorekeeper to the coaches to the bench players. Everyone was committed to this team and doing everything it took.”
“Our team is such a close group,” Albert said. “The teams in the past have been close, but this year it just seemed like we jelled together a lot better.”
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