ORRINGTON — The Biddeford 11-12 year old All- Stars put together an impressive postseason run this summer, including coming back from an early loss to win the District 4 championship.

That run would come to an abrupt end on Friday night as Scarborough rolled to a 14-0 win over Biddeford to capture the state championship and end Biddeford’s season.

“Our message was congrats on a great season, you have nothing to hang your heads about,” said Biddeford coach Marcus Crowell on what he told his team after Friday’s loss. “It’s easy when you lose a game like that in the state tournament to kind of focus on the fact that you lost a big game rather than focus on the fact that you had a tremendous season and accomplished a lot, so we tried to remind them that they are already champs by winning the District 4 championship.”

Scarborough, which also beat Biddeford 19-7 earlier in the state tournament, would hit four home runs in the state championship game – including a two-out, three-run homer from TJ Liponis in the first inning.

The lead would explode to 8-0 in the second inning as Scarborough got a pair of two-run home runs from Ryan Kelly and Nic Frink.

Scarborough added six more runs in the top of the fourth. Sam Clark led the way with a two-run home run in the inning.

Clark nearly tossed a no-hitter for Scarborough, but Biddeford’s Nick Littlefield would break it up with a two-out, two-strike bunt single in the bottom of the fourth inning.

“It’s one of those things where the defense tends to get a little comfortable with two strikes, thinking he’s not going to bunt, and he put that bunt down in a perfect spot and ended up beating it out … it was just beautiful,” said Crowell of Littlefield’s bunt, which was his second bunt single of the tournament.

Kyle Dion would pitch into the fourth inning for Biddeford, which would then hand the ball to Mikey Alvarez and Micah Ernest.

The Biddeford coach gave credit to Scarborough, which will now go on to the regional tournament in Bristol, Connecticut.

“They do everything well. They field well, they certainly hit the baseball, they’ve got a ton of pitching depth and I think that’s one of the main reasons why they are going to be representing the state down in Bristol,” said Crowell.

This was the second straight year Biddeford Little League sent a team to the state tournament, which Crowell believes is a unique accomplishment.

“We were the only team at that state tournament that repeated as their district champ, so it was a pretty big deal to be up there and to be representing District 4 and to be the only repeat team in the state tournament,” said Crowell.

Two of the leaders of this year’s Biddeford team – Ashton Crowell and Will Harriman – were on last year’s team, which won the state tournament and advanced to regionals.

“It’s huge,” said coach Crowell of having two players returning from the state championship team. “They obviously gained a lot of experience as 11-year-olds, and not only were they on the team, but they were impact players. I believe both of them started every game in the tournament last year.”

Like Crowell and Harriman were last year, Dion was an impact player as an 11-year-old for Biddeford this season.

“He pitched in some really big games, had some really big hits at important times during both districts and states,” said Marcus Crowell of Dion, who was one of three 11-year-olds on this year’s team along with Braeden Watson and Chris Walton. “He’s a kid that will definitely have a huge impact on the team next year, whether it’s in districts or if they’re fortunate enough to win districts and move onto states.”

Crowell, Harriman and Dion would come up big throughout the postseason run, but Biddeford would also get contributions from up-and-down the lineup – from Ernest, Kaleb Janelle, Sean Gonneville, Kalvin Camire or Caleb Viger coming up with clutch hits to catcher Will Goodwin, who also produced at the plate, catching an opposing runner trying to steal second.

Marcus Crowell was thrilled with his team’s playoff performance, especially after they dropped a 2-1 game to Alfred/Lyman early in the district tournament.

“It was unbelievable,” said coach Crowell of Biddeford’s playoff run. “We got ourselves in a position, second game of the year, where we lost a tight ball game and we were able to just come together, focus on one game at a time and have the kind of fun in competing and going out there trying to win one game at a time.”

This year’s postseason included a trip to Orrington, which meant staying at a hotel in Bangor for several days.

“There’s always pros and cons in going out of town to a tournament like that. The nice thing for our group was they were able to come together outside of town, stay in a hotel, you know we did some things off the field that were fun for the kids, but really just being able to have that experience as a team is a big deal. The baseball piece was great, but coming together, and all the families coming together and being able to have that time together was also great,” said coach Crowell.

The fact that Biddeford made it all the way to the state championship game was a surprise to some people in District 4, according to Marcus Crowell.

“I honestly feel like our team overachieved.

We talked to our players after the game and said look, ‘this isn’t a knock to your baseball ability or your talent, but a lot of people weren’t giving us an opportunity to win districts, especially after we lost that second game of the tournament,’” said coach Crowell. “A lot of people were worried about how we were going to bounce back and play against Saco … we responded in a great way, we went on a great run, I think we won seven games in a row, and in the end we ended up meeting a team that was better than us.”

The Biddeford coach made sure his players knew how proud they had made not only Biddeford Little League, but the entire community.

“To be state runners-up we have a lot to be proud of. I feel like we’ve accomplished as much as we could and I don’t feel like we let ourselves down or our town down. I feel like we made a lot of people proud and the kids should have a lot to be proud of moving forward,” said Marcus Crowell.

NOTES: Scarborough will take on Vermont in the opening round of regionals on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Bristol … If you want to help Scarborough’s All-Stars as they head to Bristol, stop by Elsmere BBQ & Wood Grill in South Portland from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday. The restaurant will donate eight percent of all food sales (including take-out orders) to the Scarborough All-Stars. There will also be raffle tickets for sale with prizes including Red Sox tickets and Sea Dogs tickets along with gift cards.

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @ JournalTsports.

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.