FREEPORT

It’s been said that pitching and defense win championships.

Against all possible odds, the Freeport High School baseball team is now just one game away from proving that to be true.

Freeport, which came into the Class B South postseason as just a No. 7 seven seed, continued its historic run with a landmark 5-1 win over Cape Elizabeth on Wednesday at St. Joseph’s College in Standish and now has a date with No. 1 Old Town (18-1) in Saturday’s State Championship game at Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium.

It was the first-ever regional final for the Falcons (14-6) and it will be the first-ever State Championship game for a program not accustomed to such success.

To put it mildly, the playoff run has been tough to describe.

“The run’s been unreal,” Freeport coach Bill Ridge said. “People have described it with all different words and there’s a ton of them that fit — magical and unbelievable. Both of those are perfect.”

“It’s been amazing,” Falcons ace Jack Davenport said. “To beat those top-seeded teams. Honestly, going into all those games, it put a lot of pressure on us and we didn’t know we’d win those games, but I think just the confidence and scoring those runs — it boosted our energy to go out and win.”

After defeating Morse in a preliminary game on June 8, Freeport turned to Davenport against York, where he gave up just one unearned run in a 7-2 win. Then it was on to Greely, where pitcher Josh Burke continued his hot streak and pitched the Falcons into the regional final. Another dominant start from Davenport against the Capers got them one step closer to an unthinkable milestone.

“What we have going on right now, this is something special for our team,” Burke said. “It’s special for the whole town, special for the community. We’ve believed in ourselves this whole playoff run. We’ve known we can compete with top teams like Greely, Cape (Elizabeth) and York. We’ve proved it so far by being the South regional champions.”

Davenport is widely considered one of the best pitchers in the state, and despite the unexpected winning streak, his success alone isn’t a surprise. It’s Burke, who tossed just one game in the first half of the season, that’s been eye-opening. His arm started heating up late in the schedule, when he defeated No. 3 Greely and No. 2 York before giving Freeport its first playoff win in over 30 years against the Shipbuilders.

If the Falcons were considered a one-pitcher team in the beginning of the season, they sure aren’t now.

“He’s stepped up incredibly from day one,” Davenport said of Burke. “We just tell him we’ve got the best defense out there. We got your back. He’s confident and he knows the defense will help him.”

“Josh (Burke) has just been amazing,” Freeport catcher Colby Wagner said. “He’s just dominating really out there. Hitting the spots, his curve’s looking good. He’s keeping everyone off balance. He’s just doing a great job.”

Ridge said that, perhaps not surprisingly, the success stories of his two starters go hand-in-hand. Burke has learned a lot from watching Davenport work, but he’s also caught opposition off guard when Davenport wasn’t headlining.

“I think a lot of that comes from Jack (Davenport),” Ridge said of Burke’s emergence. “When a team came against us and they found out they didn’t have Davenport going against them, they relaxed, no question about it. And Josh (Burke) took advantage of that in his first few. He started getting comfortable and we started getting confidence behind him because we were successful.”

The next step for Burke? Starting in both the biggest game of his life and the biggest game in his program’s history.

“I guess I’m kind of nervous, but I have a lot of confidence in my catcher (Wagner) and I have a lot of confidence in my fielders backing me up behind me,” Burke said.

Defensive support

The dominant pitching has stolen the show for Freeport over the past couple weeks ( four runs allowed in four playoff games), but at practice on Thursday, the defense was the talking point. Ridge credits a lot of the success to his fielders behind Davenport and Burke. When Davenport isn’t on the bump, he’s commanding the Falcon’s best defensive lineup from shortstop.

“I think our defense has improved a lot,” Davenport said. “Our outfielders are tracking down really long fly balls, which is really key. I think we’re just getting better as a team as we go through and all these games help us.”

Caiden Shea, Joey Burke and Josh Spalding make up an outfield that, according to Davenport, has really cut down on the errors as the season has progressed.

From a pitcher’s perspective, it’s a confidence boost knowing there’s a reliable defense behind the mound. From a coach’s perspective, it’s how it’s all happening.

“ It’s just pitching and defense,” Ridge said. “Our pitchers are doing a good job of getting ahead of batters, throwing strikes, getting ground balls, fly balls. Our outfield especially is just chasing stuff down and making outs.

“ There’s not a whole heck of a lot that falls out there. They’re helping carry this.”

Regardless of where he is on the field, playing deep into June has been particularly special for Davenport, one of five seniors on the team. In three seasons prior to the now historic 2016 campaign, Davenport wasn’t a part of a winning team. A freshman season of 7-9 under coach Hank Ogilby was followed by another 7-9 season in 2014 and an 8-8 mark last year — both of which ended with firstround playoff exits.

This time around, in his final stand, Davenport and Freeport have doubled Ridge’s first- season win total.

“It means a lot to me,” Davenport said. “ Just to show school pride. We may not be the best at sports, but it shows that we have a lot of pride for our school and we’re not the underdog anymore.”

Ridge said one of the best parts of the run has been the support in Freeport. On the way out to the Cape Elizabeth game, there were cheering fans on the side of the road to send the team on its way. There are supportive signs all over town and the entire community is behind the program.

The feeling throughout the team is “ there’s absolutely one more step to this.” The Falcons are ready.

“As far as confidence goes, we feel really good,” Ridge said. “Josh (Burke) is going out there — why can’t we win again with him? — he’s beaten Greely, he’s beaten York (regular season). Why can’t he go beat Old Town?”

“For us, it’s just another game,” Wagner said. “No one expected us to be here and we’re just enjoying it as much as we can. The way I see it, we have nothing to lose because we’re the underdogs here. But we have a great chance to win and it’s awesome.”

“We’ve just been confident,” Burke said. “We’ve been going in through the same game every time. It’s basically ‘we make our own destiny’ right now. Look where we are now.”