OLD TOWN, Maine — Ethan Stoddard wasn’t overpowering on Saturday afternoon, but the Old Town High School senior was efficient and had an outstanding defense behind him.
Stoddard allowed only one hit and walked two while striking out five as the top-ranked Coyotes earned a return trip to the regional finals with a 2-0 victory over No. 5 Ellsworth in a well-played pitchers’ duel.
Coach Brad Goody’s defending Class B state champions plated two first-inning runs and made them stand up thanks to Stoddard, who pounded the strike zone with four-seam and two-seam fastballs and only allowed two balls to be hit out of the infield.
“They never really squared him up,” said Goody. “[Our] defense did really well today. Throw strikes and pound the strike zone and the defense will take care of it, and they did that today.”
The 15-3 Coyotes will take on third-seeded Erskine Academy of South China on Tuesday afternoon at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.
Erskine upset No. 2 Hermon 7-6 on Saturday.
Ellsworth, which has just one senior, finishes 13-6.
It was Stoddard’s batterymate, Cole Daniel, who gave his pitcher the only run he needed. He hit a run-scoring triple to center which skipped past the center fielder on a hop and rolled all the way to the fence. Austin Sheehan plated Daniel with a sacrifice fly to right.
Stoddard didn’t give up a hit until Austin Baron hit a sharp single to shallow right with two out in the seventh inning, but Stoddard got Devin Grindle to fly out to center to end it.
Stoddard committed Old Town’s lone error, mishandling a sacrifice bunt in the second, which led to Ellsworth’s best threat.
But Stoddard got a pop-up to second base and a strikeout to end a first-and-second, one-out threat, and he allowed just two more baserunners after that.
Stoddard induced 13 ground-ball outs.
“I have a lot of trust in [second baseman Nick] Boutin and [shortstop] Ryan [Hoogterp],” said Stoddard, who plays third base when he’s not pitching and praised Jake Dubay’s work on the hot corner.
Old Town had several chances to break the game open in the early innings. But Stoddard’s counterpart, Ellsworth junior Brad Smith, got out of a first-and-second, nobody out situation in the second and escaped a first-and-third, one-out jam in the third with a double-play grounder to second.
“He’s one of their top pitchers for a reason,” Stoddard said. “He has a lot of breaking stuff that works. He changes speeds and he does really well.”
Smith scattered eight hits and struck out seven to keep the Eagles in striking distance, but coach Dan Curtis’ club couldn’t mount any serious threats against Stoddard as the game wore on.
“He was outstanding today, and we just couldn’t square a baseball off him,” said Curtis. “He’s a very good player and has been for four years.”
Goody, whose Coyotes beat Ellsworth twice in the regular season, including a 10-inning thriller in their second meeting, had similar thoughts about Smith, who kept his team off-balance.
“He was tough when he needed to be,” Goody said. “He mixed up the pitches well and kept us guessing.”
But Goody’s team is a veteran group with considerable postseason experience, and it showed.
“We have a bunch of seniors on the team, we were there last season and it’s definitely a great feeling to try to do it again,” said Stoddard.
Ellsworth showed maturity beyond its years in giving the defending state champions all they could handle.
“This is a team with hardly any playoff experience that went and rolled through the first couple rounds and gave it all we had today,” said Curtis. “We got dominated by a good pitcher and that happens.”
Daniel (triple, double) and Jacob Ketch (two singles) were Old Town’s repeat hitters. Nick Swift and Dom D’Angelo added base hits.
