MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The 2012 Fairhope Pirates swept their way through the baseball playoffs and into the 6A state finals with a perfect 8-0 record. They were the very definition of a Bay Breeze, the school’s yearbook.

But a high fly lost in the sun and a solo home run to give Oxford High’s Yellow Jackets starter Tucker Simpson — who held the Pirates to one hit (a bullet by Chase Domino) — a 2-0 win to break the Pirates’ unbeaten run at Riverwalk Stadium in game one Friday. It was Fairhope starter Toby Thomas’ first loss (11-1) of his senior year. Thomas and Simpson each had 12 strike outs.

But Fairhope was never intimidated and battled back from a 3-0 deficit in game two to score in the sixth and seventh innings to even the series on a 5-3 victory Saturday. Thomas drove in two runs, Domino and Jerrod Hathcock singled in one each while Hunter Ellenberg and Taylor Gradle each had hits.

“I’m proud of my guys,” said Fairhope coach Stu Fuller. “They never gave up, they never had any doubt in their mind that we were not going to make this go three games today.”

A run in the first inning and four in the second gave FHS starter Quint Fields a 5-1 lead in the game-three night cap. But the Jackets kept getting on and in to edge it back to within one-run 6-5 after five innings. In the sixth OHS got a one-inning rally going to take the lead 7-6 as the Pirates arms gave way. A six run sixth for the Jackets and one in the seventh left the final 12-7.

Both teams had seven hits each and both left seven runners on. Thomas had a pair of hits and as many RBIs, Jerrod Hathcock and Cole Wainwright each had RBI singles, Faust had two hits and scored and Brock Gilheart got the early Fairhope rally going with a single. Frazier Taylor (3-0) got the win in relief.

Fairhope finished as the state 6A runner-up with a 38-7 record, Oxford (39-13) won the school’s first state title in baseball. Simpson was named the MVP.

“I think these guys will look back after a little time and realize what we’ve done this year and how far the program has come,” Fuller said. “I know definitely we won’t be satisfied with anything but getting back here next year and maybe changing the result.”

Fuller said saying good-bye to any group of seniors was hard but this one would always be remembered dearly for what they mean to him as much as what they accomplished.

“I told them I loved them and I told them thanks for getting us here. They all played a vital part in our success this year and I’m going to miss each and every one of them. They worked so hard and set a great example to the others what it takes to get this far. This has been a great, great group of ball players and young men and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Right now it hurts, but they left it on the field and that’s what we said we were going to do.”

Domino, a four-year starter, was visibly disappointed.

“We battled, we fought,” he said. “We jumped out early, hot. We worked hard from day one. It just didn’t come our way. But it felt great to hear all our fans, the guys in the dugout. It was just amazing to get it to a third game and give ourselves a chance to win this ball game.”

Thomas also said he was proud of how hard his teammates fought.

“We’ve got a group of guys that just battle until the last out,” he said. “We came up here hungry, fought hard for it. Just proud to be a part of this team.”