BANGOR — Ty Giberson got out of jam after jam on the mound and came up clutch at the plate for Bucksport on Saturday. 

Giberson’s RBI single in the fourth inning drove in Jake Guty to give Bucksport the lone run of the game and help the Golden Bucks to a 1-0 victory over Lisbon at Mansfield Stadium to win the Class C baseball championship, the school’s first ever state title in the sport. 

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet, but it’s amazing,” Giberson said. “We’re in the history books now and we will always be remembered.”

From the first day of practice, when pitchers and catchers reported to the field, Bucksport had its eyes set on the state title, according to head coach Josh Jackson. 

“This feels pretty good,” Jackson said. “We’ve been in the mix a few times and this is a great group of kids … We started pitchers and catchers on day one with this conversation. We knew with our pitching staff that they would keep us in every ball game we had, and we came with the intent on winning this the whole year.”

The Golden Bucks mustered just three hits against Lisbon ace Hunter Brissette, but two came in the fourth inning. 

Guty singled into right field and stole second base by beating a close tag. Giberson followed a couple pitches later with a single into left field that was deep enough to score Guty and give Bucksport the 1-0 lead. 

It was all the cushion Giberson needed on the mound. 

“That was huge. We knew that if we got any kind of lead on them I would come in and finish the job,” Giberson said. “After we scored the run, I came out and I knew it was mine.”

With a one-run cushion in his back pocket, Giberson faced 10 more batters in the game, giving up two hits and a walk, before being taken out with one out in the top of the seventh because the senior reached his pitch-count limit. It was a stark departure from Bucksport’s start to the game. 

Lisbon loaded the bases in the first inning thanks to three walks, but two strikeouts and a groundout ended the frame and left the Greyhounds empty-handed. 

“I was a little frustrated with myself, and I shouldn’t have been walking people, but no harm, no foul,” Giberson said.

In the second, the Greyhounds loaded the bases again with hits from Bryce Poulin and Jimmy Fitzsimmons and a walk from Brissette. Levi Tibbetts struck out swinging and, again, Giberson escaped without giving up a run. 

Lisbon left 11 batters on base throughout the game, with eight left in scoring position. It was the difference in the game, in Lisbon coach Randy Ridley’s eyes. 

“We left too many runners on base, pure and simple,” Ridley said. “We left too many guys on in scoring position and we couldn’t get the clutch hit that they got in the fourth inning. That was the difference.”

Through the first two innings, Giberson threw 51 pitches, but he needed just 59 the rest of the way before Cam Rich finished the job with a fly out and a strikeout to earn the save for the Golden Bucks. 

Rich was admittedly nervous coming into the game with runners on first and second. Quickly, the runners moved into scoring position, but Rich was able to strike out Nick Ferrence to secure the win. 

“It was definitely tough,” Rich said. “It was very nerve-wracking, but I knew I had to strike him out. I knew the fastest kid was at third and I had to do something to get us home.”

Brissette pitched six innings in his final game for the Greyhounds, striking out six. Both Brissette and Giberson are Winkin Award finalists. 

“He was stellar,” Ridley said of Brissette. “You know what you’re going to get from him. He pitched phenomenal. Three hits, and just one hit in one situation and that was the game. He battled, he hit a rope, got a base hit, did what he was supposed to, and he has always been the guy to lead by example and that’s what he did today. We all felt good with him on the mound today, it just didn’t work out.”

Outside of the fourth inning, a single in the first by Gavyn Holyoke in the first inning was the only other base runner allowed by Brissette. 

Ridley said he was proud of how the team battled throughout the game and that he will miss this senior group. 

“They mean the world to me,” Ridley said of the team. “They’ve battled all the way through all year long, played fantastic baseball but just came up a little bit short today … This whole senior group has busted their butt all the way through their years from Cal Ripken, all the way up. Great career. I miss every single senior group and this one’s no different. I’ve known them since they were my students as third graders.”

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