ORONO, Maine — The Saint Dominic Academy baseball team knew Saturday was going to mark the end of the 2025 season.
The Saints also had to grapple with the emotional reality that it would be the final athletic contest in school history — at least for now.
With their building already closed by the Diocese of Portland recently because of financial considerations, the baseball team wanted to put an exclamation point on its chapter at the Auburn school.
The South champion Saints rode the strong pitching of freshman right-hander Logan LeClair and timely hitting to a 9-6 victory over Bangor Christian in the Class D title game at UMaine’s Mahaney Diamond.
Coach Bob Blackman’s team wound up 14-6, claiming the program’s fourth consecutive championship and the ninth in his 21 seasons. Bangor Christian, coached by Tim Collins, finished the season 18-2.
“It’s definitely a strange feeling, me graduating, but I feel bad for all these juniors, sophomores, freshmen to not know what’s going to happen next year, where they’re going to go,” said Saint Dominic senior Curtis Wheeler. “But to win the state championship for the school is an awesome feeling.”
The Saints posted eight hits against two Bangor Christian pitchers while taking advantage of some walks. Junior Riley Daigle belted an RBI triple and a single, while LeClair and Nolan Cavers drove in two runs each to lead the offense.
That proved ample support for LeClair, who held the Patriots to four hits and four runs over five-plus innings. He struck out six and walked only one before junior Benjamin Dumais recorded the last six outs.
LeClair kept BC off-balance with a good fastball and a steady diet of curves and sliders. He appeared unfazed by the enormity of the moment and instead embraced the bittersweet nature of his final game in a Saint Dominic uniform.
“Honestly, I feel like it impacted me well,” he said. “I didn’t want to go down losing, I wanted to get this last win for the school, so that really gave me motivation.”
Trailing 9-1 going to the bottom of the sixth, the Patriots rallied. Jon Benjamin’s single to right-center, a stolen base and throwing error, and a walk set the table for Jack Kowalski’s RBI single to shallow center.
Blaze Morris then grounded a single past the second baseman to load the bases, spelling the end of the outing for LeClair. One out later, Drake Nash lined a three-run triple to the gap in right-center and scored when the relay throw went into the dugout.
That made it 9-6, but BC was unable to come all the way back.
“I was proud of them,” Collins said. “You grow through the adversity.”
“I was thrilled that we made a game out of it,” Collins added. “I was very pleased that we didn’t pack it in and battled back.”
Backman knew that his team had plenty of character to deal with the unusual circumstance of playing for a school that has been closed. After all, the Saints had overcome a 2-6 start to the season to win their last 11 contests.
Despite a relatively youthful lineup that featured only one senior with four underclass starters, Saint Dominic remained focused on bringing home a gold glove.
“Unfortunately, it’s out of our hands. We’ll move on,” Backman said of the unusual ending to the story.
“I’m happy for them and God do I wish that I’d be coaching next year again. I think five (championships in a row) would be achievable, but unfortunately we’re not going to get that chance.”
The Saints grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning on Nolan Cavers’ two-run single off BC starter Blaze Morris.
BC countered with a run in the bottom of the inning, aided by three St. Dominic miscues. Jon Benjamin reached on a fielding error, took third on an errant pickoff toss, then scored on Kowalski’s grounder that resulted in a throwing error.
The Saints extended their lead to 5-1 with three runs in the third. LeClair’s single to left-center brought in two runs and the other came home when the ball got past the center fielder.
Saint Dominic kept the pressure on, tacking on runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by Riley Daigle’s two-run triple and Finley Caver’s run-scoring groundout.
The Saints scored a single run in the fifth on Kessel Lynn’s single to center that made it 9-1.