Gabe Gifford has dreamed the dream shared by thousands of young baseball players throughout New England: to pitch for the Boston Red Sox one day.
But first the junior lefthander from Bradley and Old Town High School plans to play Division I college baseball at the University of Maine, having made a verbal commitment to accept a partial scholarship from the America East-leading Black Bears.
“I’ve grown up watching the University of Maine play as a kid and I’ve always wanted to play for them one day, so to be able to get the offer from them was awesome,” he said.
“It takes a lot of stress off my shoulders getting it out of the way early. Now I can just focus on what needs to be done as far as Old Town and taking care of my grades, but it feels good to be committed early.”
Gifford, the 16-year-old son of Mark and Heidi Gifford, has been a three-sport standout at Old Town in soccer, basketball and baseball, but it’s the diamond that piques his interest most.
“It started with my older brother [Kaleb],” said Gifford, an outfielder when he’s not pitching. “Ever since I was a kid his favorite sport was baseball too, so that was always both of our favorite sports. Growing up I always wanted to have a baseball bat in my hand.”
Gifford lost out on playing baseball as a freshman at Old Town due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but as a sophomore last spring was named the Penobscot Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year and a first-team PVC all-star after helping coach Justin Crisafulli’s Coyotes compile a 16-4 record capped off by a 7-3 victory over Freeport in the Class B state championship game.
Gifford compiled a 3-2 regular-season pitching record with an 1.88 earned run average in 26 innings in 2021. He struck out 44 batters, walked 12 and allowed just 18 hits. He also batted .366 with one home run, seven doubles and nine RBIs.
That success enabled him to get in on a sibling competition for gold gloves symbolic of statewide sports supremacy, as older sister Kelsey played on Old Town’s 2012 state championship softball team while Kaleb helped Old Town win the 2014 Class B boys basketball crown as well as the school’s first baseball state title in 2016.
Gabe Gifford capped off his 2021 season on the mound by pitching a complete-game two-hitter with 10 strikeouts and two walks as Old Town shut out Ellsworth 6-0 in the regional final.
Gifford then went 3-for-4 at the plate in the state final, including a three-run triple that propelled the Coyotes past Freeport.
“Kelsey won one and Kaleb won two, so now I’ve got to win three,” said Gifford of his continuing championship quest.
Gifford has played during recent summers for the Old Town-based Maine Sting AAU baseball team while also working out with his brother.
“He researches everything, so we researched a bunch of workouts for pitching and this offseason more than any other offseason I was hitting the weights a lot more,” Gifford said.
Gifford added approximately 20 pounds to his frame through those efforts, and now at 5-foot-10, 170 pounds he’s added several miles per hour to his fastball while also expanding his pitching repertoire.
“I’ve always been proud of my curveball, I’ve thrown it ever since I was a little kid even though I wasn’t supposed to,” Gifford said. “I’ve always had a good curveball, but it wasn’t until this year that I’ve now incorporated a slider as well.”
Crisafulli suggests there’s plenty of time for additional improvement before Gifford jumps to the collegiate ranks.
“He still has this year and next year,” Crisafulli said, “and if he’s going to UMaine they’ll put him on a pitching program with long toss and a lot of bullpen sessions and getting his legs stronger. That will probably get his fastball up another 5 mph or so.”
Gifford displayed mid-season form in his 2022 regular-season pitching debut Tuesday with a 14-strikeout, no-walk no-hitter, though three unearned runs in the fourth inning enabled Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor to score a 3-2 victory over Old Town in a rematch of their 2021 regional semifinal when the Coyotes scored twice in the bottom of the seventh for a 7-6 win.
“Gabe just dominated that game,” Crisafulli said. “He had tremendous command, and you could tell he had gained 5 to 7 mph on his fastball from last year. We just didn’t get that extra hit.”
The MDI matchup began a challenging season-opening stretch for Old Town, which was to face reigning Class A North champion Bangor on Friday before Gifford returns to the mound Saturday afternoon when the Coyotes host Ellsworth in their rematch from last year’s regional final.
“We have a young team. We had a lot of good leaders leave last year, and we have our leaders now for this year but it’s almost like a rebuild and guys need to learn the ropes,” Gifford said.
“We took an early ‘L’ but I think we’re going to bounce back well. We have a great lineup on paper, and once it starts clicking and we get the bats rolling we’ll be good.”
