BUFORD — After the game’s final out, Buford pitcher Josh Heddinger simply tossed his glove 30 feet in the air, standing almost subdued as he waited for his ecstatic teammates to charge the mound to help him celebrate.

Heddinger had just turned in a complete-game gem in the biggest outing of his life, helping the Wolves to a 5-1 victory over Pike County in the third and deciding game of the Class AA state championship on Memorial Day.

The 6-foot-4 right-hander with a devastating curveball and equally effective fastball limited the Pirates, who combined for 19 hits in the series’ first two games, to just two hits and a run while striking out 10 and walking two.

Backed by a three-run sixth inning that included Adam Hampton’s two-run homer, he and the Wolves (31-4) won the first baseball championship for Buford since 1977.

Heddinger credited his performance to the scouting reports from Buford coaches and pitchers Sam Clay and Jake Burnette, who started the first two games.

“They told me what (the Pirates) were doing and how to throw them and I just listened to them,” said Heddinger, who has signed with Georgia Tech. “(Clay and Burnette) took the hard road to find everything out, I was just the one who used their advice.”

Heddinger’s only mistake came in the second inning, when Pirates catcher Chris Long lifted a hanging curveball over the left-field fence to tie the game at 1. The Pirates didn’t get another hit until there were two outs in the seventh.

Heddinger pitched 1-2-3 innings in the first, third and sixth to suppress Pike County’s potent offense.

“We’ve had some great kids come through in some big moments here, but this has to rank up there with the top, to pitch that well” said 15-year Buford coach Tony Wolfe. “He’s a great player and a great competitor, so we felt like he’d have a big day.”

Added Pirates coach Don Hanson, “Hats off to Josh Heddinger. He pitched an awesome game. He stayed poised the whole time, even though he struggled a little bit with his fastball. But any time you can come back and spot up your curveball like he did in a masterful effort, what can I say?”

The low-scoring affair was a stark contrast to the series’ first two games, when the Pirates won 10-3 and the Wolves responded with a 14-4 rout Saturday.

Although Heddinger was dominating, the game was air-tight until Buford, nursing a 2-1 lead, scored three insurance runs in the sixth. Up to that point, the Wolves had struggled to find an answer for Pirates starter Lance Shelton (six innings, 10 hits, two walks).

Buford opened the scoring in the first on a bloop RBI single from Mason Gentry and regained the lead on Hampton’s RBI single in the fourth, but failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity in the fifth to put the game out of reach.

With one out and no one on, Wolves leadoff hitter Brian Clark reached on a error. Tyler White and Jamie Ritchie hit back-to-back singles to load the bases for clean-up hitter Troy Herterick, but Shelton coaxed both he and Gentry into pop flies to third to end the inning.

“We didn’t really pull through on that one,” Hampton said. “But we didn’t get down on ourselves. We knew we had to go back out there and get some extra insurance runs and we did it.”

Heddinger led off the sixth inning with a double, and Hampton followed with a home run that initially appeared to be a routine fly, but kept carrying until it cleared the left-field fence. The next batter, Clay Grant reached safely on a bunt craftily placed between the pitcher and first baseman. He scored the game’s final run from third base three batters later on a wild pitch.

In the seventh, Heddinger forced Kody Adams into a ground out to second and struck out Long for the first two outs. After Nate Ferrell’s single, Chad Kirskey grounded out to third to end the game.

“This means a lot, especially to the school and the community,” Wolfe said. “For this baseball program to get back in the finals and win a championship, we’re excited for everybody, but mostly for these kids. They battled all year and really went out and earned every bit of this.”

Hampton is happy to share school history with the 1977 team, though he admits he knows very little of that era.

“Black and white pictures, that’s what I think about when I think 1977,” said Hampton, who will play baseball for LaGrange next season. “That picture out there (outside the press box) with the stirrups on and long hair down to their shoulders, that’s what I think about.

“But it’s exciting to be a part of history. We all worked hard all year long and there’s not a player on the team that doesn’t deserve this.”

The Wolves’ win capped a dominating 2010-11 school year for Buford athletics, including team state championships in football, softball and girls basketball.

“For me, it’s just a culture in our athletic program,” Wolves athletic director Dexter Wood said. “When you take talented athletes that are committed to year-round development of their skills and put them in this environment, that’s what they can do.”

Though it’s not how they wanted it to end, the season was also historic for the Pirates (31-8), as they reached the state finals for the first time in program history.

“Getting here was a big barrier,” said Hanson, who has coached the Pirates for eight seasons. “We fought for years to get through that Elite 8, and it was a glass ceiling. We broke through this year to get to here. As far as seasons go, I couldn’t ask for a better one other than just one more win.”

Follow Adam Krohn at Twitter.com/gtimesakrohn.