BANGOR, Maine — In the heat of championship battle, bouncing back from that one small piece of adversity can be a monumental difference.
Searsport senior pitcher Kyle Moore faced that Saturday afternoon, taking a one-hopper to the throat in the fourth inning that stung a little.
“I’m going to feel it in the morning,” he said.
It’s what the righthander did in the subsequent moments that will live forever in Vikings’ baseball history, as he responded by extinguishing a Penobscot Valley threat with a strikeout and a double play.
Searsport’s offense did the rest, putting the Howlers away with a five-run sixth inning en route to its second straight Class D state championship with a 10-2 victory Saturday at Mansfield Stadium.
Coach John Frye’s club concluded a 17-3 season while Penobscot Valley of Howland, making its first state final appearance, finished 18-2.
Moore was in cruise control through three innings, and his teammates provided him five runs in the top of the fourth before the Howlers threatened in the bottom half.
A Dakota Batchelder single and Thomas Spencer double put runners on second and third with no outs before Jarrett Priest hit a sharp comebacker to the mound that nailed Moore on one hop and enabled Batchelder to score the Howlers’ first run.
Moore managed to catch his breath and stay in the game, and he struck out Jaeden Folster on four pitches and got a double play pop-up on a failed suicide squeeze attempt by Zach Carr to end the inning.
Moore, who scattered two runs on nine hits, gave up just two hits the rest of the way.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” said Moore, who couldn’t get his glove up in time. “It’s just an all-in-the-moment type thing. When it hit me I just blanked out and got zoned in the game more.”
Moore, who described himself as a contact pitcher, kept his pitches down and his teammates committed just one error behind him.
“From Day 1 he knew he’d be pitching in this game because Troy [Reynolds] would go the South [regional final],” Frye said. “He’s been waiting all season to be on this mound.”
After being held in check by Priest over the first three innings, the Vikings started to square him up the second time through the batting order and plated five runs in the fourth, sparked by Ben Powell’s two-run single and an RBI single by Matt Barlow.
After facing hard-throwing Cody Lawyerson of Valley, who will pitch for the University of Maine next year, in the South regional final, it took the Vikings a few innings to adjust to Priest.
“This guy was probably 20 miles per hour slower so we started lunging in the first two, three innings,” said Frye. “Once we started to get our weight back we started hitting the ball right up the middle.”
Searsport put the game away with its five-run sixth-inning uprising. Moore aided his cause with a two-run single and Reynolds hit a two-run double. Barrett Grant added an RBI base hit. Charlie Spiegel contributed three singles and a run.
The Howlers got their other run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double by Spencer. Priest was PVHS’ lone repeat hitter with two singles.
