Former Bangor Christian School ace Jason Libby, who won the 2023 Dr. John Winkin Award which goes to the state’s best high school senior baseball player, will pitch for the University of Maine next season after a year at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland.
“Growing up in Bangor, 15 minutes from UMaine, it’s a dream come true,” said Libby.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Libby was 3-2 with a 4.29 earned run average and had 56 strikeouts in 50 1/3 innings. He walked 17 and didn’t give up a home run among the 45 hits he allowed. He called a useful year that proved he could be a big jump from Class D, the lowest one in Maine high school sports.
“You still have to execute your pitches and you still have to play the right way,” said Libby.
Libby, who just turned 19 and led Bangor Christian to the Class D North title his senior year, worked hard in the weight room between fall and spring to get stronger, develop his mechanics and increase the velocity on his four-seam fastball. He was in the mid-80s when he first arrived at SMCC but head coach Nic Lops said he reached 92 miles an hour during the season.
“He has a very strong arm, and his fastball has life to it,” Lops said. “It runs in on righties and away on lefties.”
His curveball has “true 12-to-6 action,” said Lops, who pointed out that Libby has also developed a change-up for a solid three-pitch mix.
Libby said he wasn’t sure if he would spend one or two years at SMCC, but UMaine associate head coach Scott Heath watched him this spring and recruited him. UMaine head coach Nick Derba called Libby a “big, strong kid” who throws strikes.
“He throws over the top. He has different arm action. It will change the timing for the hitters,” Derba said. “He competes and he’s a tough kid.”
He will join a UMaine’s pitching staff that had a miserable and injury-ridden season, finishing with an 8.88 earned-run average and 343 walks in 399 1/3 innings. To tune up, he will play for the Nashua (New Hampshire) Silver Knights this season in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England.
“It’s going to be a big learning piece for me again,” he said. “I will be facing a lot of good college athletes from Division I, II and III. I’ve got to play my game and throw the way I do.”
One of his best outings was a 3-2 win over Northern Essex Community College (Mass.) in which he allowed just four hits and no earned runs over seven innings with seven strikeouts and two walks. NECC is currently competing in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III College World Series.
“That was a gem. We usually never come within nine runs of them,” Lops said.
Libby, who struck out 22 hitters in a seven-inning, 5-0 no-hit win over Stearns of Millinocket his senior year, will join a staff comprised of two All-America First Team Pitchers (Colin Fitzgerald, Gianni Gambardella) and three others who were All-Rookie Team choices (Caleb Leys, Luc Lavigueur, Jason Krieger).
Fitzgerald and Leys missed the entire 2024 season with hip and arm surgeries, respectively, and Gambardella missed five weeks with tendonitis in his elbow.
“I want to go up there, compete and get some innings next season,” Libby said.
Derba said he is happy to land another Maine player. He had six on this past spring’s roster. Libby will be a recruited walk-on with potential to receive scholarship money in his second year at UMaine, Derba said. Libby’s old coach says the Black Bears are getting a good person.
“He was raised very well and has very strong morals,” Lops said. “He was a pleasure to coach.”
