The Capers didn’t enter the Western Maine Class B playoffs as your average No. 9 seed.

They knew they were capable of beating anyone in the highly competitive Western Maine Conference – they knocked off No.1 York twice during the regular season and defeated No. 2 Greely on the road back in May – and therefore could play with any team in the Western B bracket.

“It’s an extremely tough conference,” said Cape coach Chris Hayward. “As we said at the beginning of the year, there were seven teams that had a chance of catching fire and having at it. We just needed to make sure that we won enough games to make the playoffs. That was our goal.”

So when Cape defeated No. 3 Lincoln Academy 9-2 last Wednesday for the Western Maine title at Mahaney Diamond on the St. Joe’s College campus in Standish, it wasn’t so much a Cinderella run as it was a team coming together and peaking at the right time.

Cape went on the road to knock off No. 8 Lisbon, No. 1 York and No. 4 Maranacook to reach the regional championship against the Eagles.

“We knew right from the get-go (that we could do something special),” said Andrew Guay, who pitched a complete-game, two-hitter for the Capers. “We beat all the really good teams early in the year, so we knew we could do damage. We really bound together as a team and did our jobs.”

Cape took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Will Pierce, who doubled on a one-hopper of the left field wall, scored following Sam St. Germain’s single. St. Germain was caught in a run-down between first and second, which allowed Pierce to trot home.

The Capers blew the game open in the fifth when they scored six runs while sending 11 players to the plate. It was one of those innings a coach loves to see.

“We had some quality at-bats,” Hayward said. “We did the little things right. We bunted right, we ran the bases well, we took a couple walks when we were supposed to take walks. The kids work very hard at staying on balance all the way through at-bats.”

No. 8 hitter Ezra Wolfinger walked to lead off the inning and Conor Moloney followed with a single to center. Zach Breed reached first on a textbook bunt to load the bases. Kyle Piscopo singled to score two runs. Guay blooped a single to center to score another. After a sacrifice bunt by Adam Danielson and an intentional walk to Pierce to again load the bases, Piscopo was thrown out on a force at home on Sam St. Germain’s fielder’s choice grounder. Pinch hitter Ryan Boyington singled to right field to score two and St. Germain later scored on a balk to make it 7-0.

Lincoln Academy scored twice in the bottom of the fifth on two hits, an error and a balk. Besides that inning, Guay allowed only two base runners, one on an error in the second and another on a walk in the sixth.

“He was fantastic,” Hayward said of Guay. “The thing about it is, as the year progresses, he’s become more and more a pitcher. He’s a strikeout pitcher who only struck out one kid today. That’s how well he pitched and how well we played behind him.”

The Lincoln hitters didn’t make a lot of solid contact, with many outs coming on pop ups, routine grounders and shallow fly balls.

“The fielders did an excellent job of keeping the ball in front and making plays,” said Guay, a second-team WMC all-conference selection, the only Caper to make the team. “I think that’s what really decided the game. I was throwing mostly fastballs and curves. I was just trying to keep them off balance.”

Cape added two runs in the seventh on an RBI single by Wolfinger and an RBI triple from Moloney.

The Capers finished with 12 hits. Lincoln Academy starter Dan Wyand was replaced in the fifth inning with two outs by Eric Morgner, who began the game in right field. Wyand struck out four while allowing nine hits.

Cape lost 10-0 to Gardiner in five innings in the Class B state championship on Saturday in Bangor to finish the season at 13-8.

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