PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Fort Fairfield took advantage of some pitching wildness to win the Northern Maine Community Recreation Association junior girls’ softball championship Thursday, July 27, at the Presque Isle Middle School softball field.
Fort Fairfield emerged out of a field of five teams and beat Presque Isle in the finals, 5-4. The tournament was for girls between the ages of 8 and 12 and concluded the recreation department softball season.
In the championship game, Presque Isle pitchers walked six of the first seven batters they faced in the bottom of the second inning. Three runs scored as a result of those walks and Camryn Ala drove in two others on a single to cap the rally. Those were all the runs Fort Fairfield scored in the game.
Ala was steady on the mound for Fort Fairfield. She pitched the first three innings, gave way to Sarah McShea, who went the fourth and fifth, and then returned to pitch the final frame. Ala gave up a single run in the third and another in the sixth, while McShea surrendered three runs during her stint.
Myah Bragdon and Emily Straetz did the pitching for Presque Isle and combined on the three-hitter.
Ala finished with two hits for the winners and Brittany Osterblom had Fort Fairfield’s only other hit.
Hailey Rouse doubled in Bragdon, who had also doubled, to get Presque Isle within a run in the top of the sixth, but Ala induced a ground ball out to end the game.
Emily Straetz collected an RBI triple and an RBI single and Faith Sjoberg tripled and singled and scored twice for Presque Isle.
Fort Fairfield beat Ashland in one of the semifinals, while Presque Isle defeated Mars Hill in extra innings in the other. Mars Hill had advanced by shutting out Caribou in a first-round matchup.
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- Fort Fairfield’s champion junior girls’ softball team includes, in front from left, Hannah Chartier, Emma Bragg, Morgan Castonguay, Brianna Osterblom and Cayden Ala (ball boy). Back row, coach Emily Ala, Brittany Bragg, Kassidy Gorneault, Camryn Ala, Sarah McShea, Cady Stairs and coach John Ala. Absent when photo was taken were Lydia Gorneault, Phoebe Solomon and Audrey Milliard. (Kevin Sjoberg)
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- Brianna Osterblom, second baseman for the Fort Fairfield junior softball team, makes a throw to first to retire a Presque Isle batter during Thursday’s tournament played in Presque Isle. (Kevin Sjoberg)
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- Camryn Ala delivers a pitch Thursday in the championship game of the Northern Maine Community Recreation Association junior girls’ softball tournament, played in Presque Isle. Ala’s Fort Fairfield team took the title with a 5-4 win over Presque Isle. (Kevin Sjoberg)
