LIMESTONE, Maine — Megan Faucher had payback on her mind when she capped a wild seventh inning with a walk-off home run, leading the Limestone-MSSM softball team to a 5-4 victory over Washburn in a battle of the top two teams in Eastern Maine Class D Thursday.
The Beavers had scored all four of their runs with two outs in the top of the inning. Catelyn Coulombe blasted one off the center field fence to plate Mackenzie Worcester from second base for the first run, while the next batter, Grace Braley, followed by clearing the fence on a 3-2 pitch to drive in Brittany Corey and Coulombe and give Washburn a 4-2 lead.
“I never doubt the competitiveness of my players,” said Beaver coach Tammy Tatlock of her team’s rally. “They always fight until the very end and our bats always tend to connect late in games.”
However, in the bottom of the inning for Limestone-MSSM, lead-off hitter Jackie Peers reached on a four-pitch walk and Kassee Albert followed by ripping a single into center field, setting the stage for the Eagle sophomore center fielder.
“I was pretty anxious up there, but they had hit those two over my head and I wanted to get them back,” said Faucher, one of many Maine School of Science and Mathematics students on the team.
The victory pushed Limestone-MSSM’s record to 10-1 and solidified their No. 1 ranking in the Heal Point standings. Washburn dropped to 9-2, with both losses coming at the hands of the Eagles.
“Today I thought we showed a lot of poise,” said Limestone-MSSM first-year coach Jamie Albert. “After [Braley’s home run], we had a conference on the mound and even at that point not one of our girls thought we were going to lose the game.”
The first six innings featured strong pitching by both the Eagles’ Ellie Bencivenga and the Beavers’ Liza Durette. Although both combined for just one 1-2-3 inning in the game, with Bencivenga registering that in the fourth, they both were effective with runners on the base over the first six innings and relied on some stellar infield defense throughout.
Bencivenga singlehandedly was responsible for giving Limestone-MSSM a 2-0 lead heading into the final inning. She lined Durette’s first pitch over the left field fence to lead off the fourth and then in the sixth hit a high fly ball on a 2-0 offering into center field that carried just over the fence.
“Earlier in the season I was trying to hit the ball out every time and realized that doesn’t work, so I’ve really been working on developing a line-drive swing,” said Bencivenga, who has six of her team’s home runs this season. “That faster the ball comes in, the faster it goes out.”
She was outstanding on the mound prior to the seventh-inning hiccup. Through six frames, she had allowed just one hit, a ground ball single down the third-base line by Mikayla Churchill in the second inning. She did allow six walks and hit a batter, but seemed to always bear down when Washburn had multiple baserunners. She finished with seven strikeouts.
“We struggled a bit to get runs when we were given the opportunity,” Tatlock said. “We couldn’t capitalize [with runners on base] in the early parts of the game, otherwise it could have been a different outcome.”
Outside of the homers by her fellow pitcher, Durette was also impressive through six innings. She surrendered only five other hits and walked only one to that point against the potent Eagle attack.
Both teams fielded well, committing only one error each in the contest. The infielders had most of the action, with the shortstops on both sides especially strong. Worcester made some fine plays on grounders and pop-ups and finished with three assists and four putouts, while Albert showed range by going out to short left field on a couple occasions to catch fly balls to prevent scoring rallies.
Albert finished with three singles and Maddie Williams doubled and singled for Limestone-MSSM.
