BREWER – Alyssa Henderson would likely have given her team a thumbs-up after Saturday’s second straight state championship win.

That’s if the senior catcher could lift her thumb following the 2-1 shocker over Bangor Christian.

Henderson injured her thumb early in Saturday’s Class D state championship game in Brewer. While behind the plate, a pitch hit her on the right hand. She tried to shake it off, but the throbbing pain lingered.

“I knew I had to make it through the game,” said Henderson, holding ice to her hand following the win. “I just shrugged it off. It killed. The last (at-bat) he had me bunt. That didn’t hurt as much, but when I hit (a single), I just stood there because I didn’t think I hit it because it hurt so bad.”

Any other game, Henderson might have come out. This was her last game for the Bucks, and there was no stopping her. It was that tenacity that spread through the Bucks lineup as her teammates rallied in the final inning to beat the Patriots.

Coach Ken Farrington credits the leadership and example of his three seniors. With a roster filled with seven freshmen and sophomores, the trio of Henderson, Amy Reuter and Kasey Farrington were not going to be denied and led the charge right through to the end.

“My seniors did it for me,” he said. “My senior catcher, I don’t know if the thumbs broke, but she’s hurting bad. Kasey’s pitching, and Amy coming up and getting a hit, our No. 9 hitter. We don’t give up, and we work together.”

Facing one of the top pitchers in not only Class D but also the state in Jillian French, the Bucks never gave up, even when down to their final out.

“We just told each other to keep our heads up,” said Kasey Farrington. “We always come back at the end of the game. Our last playoff game we did. So we knew we could all do it. We were like ‘Ladies, you now that’s how we are. Just go up there with confidence, don’t put your heads down yet and do what we do out there.'”

There wasn’t much reason to think the Bucks might actually pull off a late inning comeback. French struck out 18 batters and only three Bucks made an out other than by French’s heat. The Bucks got hits from Alicia Patrie, Henderson and Ashlee Hamann early but failed to muster a consistent offensive threat until the seventh.

Plastered across their cheeks was “Bucks Spirit”. It was not only written across their faces but also in their play as Buckfield rallied for the unlikeliest comeback wins.

“I was worried maybe for a moment,” said Reuter, a senior outfielder, who will attend the University of Maine next year. “I knew this was it. I just knew we could pull it out. We just had to. We all knew we could. We just had to put it all together, and we did.”

With two outs in the seventh, junior outfielder LeAnn Abbott sparked the rally when hit by a pitch on the leg. She limped to first base but was seemingly pain free when she later scored the tying run. Sophomore Brittany Wiley kept things going with an infield bunt hit. Abbott took third on the bunt, and Wiley stole second moments later.

“The bottom of our lineup has been our hottest throughout the playoffs,” said Henderson. “But with two outs, I was like ‘I don’t know.’ Then they bunted it, and it was like ‘We’ve got this.’ It was scary but … “

Reuter, whose grounder kept the Bucks alive in the regional final by plating the tying run in the seventh inning, came to bat. She had made contact against French twice. She hit a slow chopper toward second and beat out the throw at first. Abbott scored easily and an errant throw couldn’t catch Wiley screeching home for the winning run.

“I’m glad Amy was the one that got that hit, being a senior and us going back-to-back,” said Farrington, who will play softball and basketball at SMCC with Henderson. “I think out of anyone on the team, I wanted her to have that one hit because even though she might not think it, she’s a huge part of this team.”

It was a fitting ending for three Bucks careers. Reuter’s last at-bat was an infield hit that produced the tying and winning runs in the state championship. The last pitch thrown by the senior battery of Farrington and Henderson was the final strike in the victory.

“It’s definitely the best way to finish out high school,” said Henderson, who said the pain was certainly worth the victory. “Winning is the most incredible feeling in the world.”