The No. 6 EG/GHCA cooperative softball team played two near identical games in the Class D Eastern Maine playoffs. One they played for a win, in the second, they ended their season.
Last Thursday in the quarterfinals in Washburn, the EG/GHCA girls were narrowly defeated by a Beaver squad, who came back for a 9-8 win.
The No. 6 EG/GHCA girls staked a 5-1 lead through five innings behind Allie McEwen’s two-run RBI-double and Chelsea Winiarski’s double.
With the game seemingly in hand, the No. 3 Beavers rallied for a five-run fifth, extending their lead to 9-5 over six innings of play.
The EG/GHCA girls battled back with a two-out rally that included RBI-doubles by Sarah Stoddard and McEwen, with the team’s final run scored when Winiarski delivered a key hit. But, the rally fell short and the cooperative team ends a successful season at 10-6.
The EG/GHCA squad has no seniors and will return its entire team roster next season, so the outlook is promising for the cooperative schools.
In last Tuesday’s prelims, the EG/GHCA girls picked up a 9-8 win over No. 11 Southern Aroostook in Danforth.
The Lady Warriors held a 3-2 lead over three innings before EG/GHCA knotted the game at 3-all in the bottom frame of the fourth. Southern Aroostook responded with a four-run fifth to take a 7-3 lead.
The EG/GHCA girls battled back with a five-run sixth inning for an 8-7 lead.
With the game on the line, Southern Aroostook delivered the tying run in the top of the seventh, putting the fate of the game into EG/GHCA hands.
The cooperative girl’s team did not disppoint, as the focus was on eighth-grader Haleigh Shay, who led off the bottom of the frame with a single to right field. She stole second and went to third on a ground out. With one out, junior Adreanna Phillips lined a single to center to score Shay for the game-winner.
EG/GHCA pitcher McEwen had five strikeouts to earn the win.
For SACS, 6-11, Mataya Hartin stroked two hits and drove in two runs.
The No. 12 Katahdin girls were overtaken by host No. 5 Fort Fairfield, 13-6, in last Tuesday’s preliminary contest in Class D.
The Tigers took an 11-2 lead after four innings. The Katahdin girls scored single runs over the fifth and sixth and two more in the top of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough, as Fort Fairfield had scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth en route to the win.
Alyssa Dougherty punched out three singles in the Tigers’ 13-hit attack over Katahdin. Marissa MacDonald rapped a double and single for the Katahdin girls who end their season 5-10-1.
The Fort Fairfield Tigers advanced in the playoffs with a 9-7 record and fell in the semifinals 11-10 to Ashland.
The Hodgdon Hawks did not have the showing they wanted in their Class D preliminary game held last Wednesday in Howland.
The Howlers overpowered Hodgdon, 13-0. PVHS lost in their semifinal game, 14-6, to No. 3 Washburn.
“They hit the ball very well and errors ended up costing us,” said Hodgdon coach Seth Dorr.
Despite the score, the Hawks did hit the ball, but could not find a hole.
“When we hit the ball, it was right at the other team,” Dorr said. “We are a very young team with only four players ever playing in a varsity baseball game before this year. We lose only two players to graduation, Tyler Sherman and Anthony Mazzacco. We will miss them next year, but we are optimistic as we look towards the future.”
The Hawks fell behind in the third 11-0, as the game was called in the fifth.
Thomas Spencer, Erik Batchelder and Jarrett Priest combined on a five-inning no-hitter for PVHS.
For Hodgdon, Sherman drew a walk for Hodgdon.
The Hawks finish the year at 8-9.
