WATERVILLE — The Waterville Senior High School baseball team was pleased with winning a third consecutive Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B championship, but it’s a third straight state title the Purple Panthers have their sights on.

“We’ve got to stay focused. This is a small thing compared with what we want to do later in the playoffs,” first baseman Tyler Bouchard said.

Bouchard went 3 for 3 and drove in three runs, helping the Panthers take a 6-1 win over Morse of Bath in the KVAC B title game. It was the fourth consecutive conference championship appearance for the Panthers.

“That’s quite an accomplishment for these kids. It’s fun playing in these games,” Waterville coach Don Sawyer said.

The No. 2 seed in Eastern Maine, Waterville (15-1) will host a regional quarterfinal game Thursday against either No. 10 Gardiner (8-8) or No. 7 Hermon (11-5), at a time to be determined.

Morse (12-4), the No. 3 seed in the Western Maine tournament, will face either No. 11 Fryeburg (8-8) or No. 6 Gray-New Gloucester (10-6) in the quarterfinals Thursday.

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J.T. Whitten, the KVAC B Player of the Year, threw one of his best games of the season for Waterville. When he pitched against the Shipbuilders a month ago, Whitten struggled, and Morse scored 10 runs in the first inning of a 13-3 win. Whitten faced 14 batters in that game, and had 0-2 counts on eight of them.

“Throwing it down the middle isn’t an option in this game,” Sawyer said. “As you can see, he changed his speeds really good. We were telling him, keep the ball in the dirt a lot, especially with two strikes. See if they chase it.”

This time around, Whitten gave up three hits, none after the fourth inning, and struck out nine while walking one.

“He was definitely on. He’s got his stuff together, and we knew that,” Morse coach Garrett Olson said of Whitten. “We knew it would have to be a low scoring game if we were going to beat them. He’s KVAC Player of the Year for a reason.”

The Panthers took the lead for good when Bouchard hit a two-run double down the left field line with two outs in the bottom of the third inning. Bouchard, who took third base on an error and scored on a balk in the third, added an RBI single in the fifth to push Waterville’s lead to 4-1.

“I’ve worked this season staying back, doing routine stuff. Today it just worked for me. I was seeing the pitches well,” Bouchard said.

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Waterville scored a pair of insurance runs in the sixth. Josh Gormley scored on Kaleb Kane’s sacrifice fly to left field, and Matt Lee came home on a Racean Wood single.

Olson saw his team deflate after Bouchard’s third inning double.

“They kind of sank. Mentally, they were gone,” Olson said. “There’s no defense for key hits. They’re hitting with two outs and they’re getting good hits.”

The Shipbuilders took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. C.J. Hardin hit a one-out triple to right field and scored on Zack Groat’s sacrifice fly to center field.

The lopsided loss to Morse in the regular season, Waterville’s only loss, was motivation, Bouchard said.

“We brought it up, saying we need to come out with more intensity. The last time we played Morse, we had none and that really hurt us,” Bouchard said.

Aaron Barrett pitched into the fifth inning for Morse and took the loss.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com


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