PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Presque Isle junior girls’ softball team didn’t waste much time in taking control of the Northern Maine Community Recreation Association championship game.
PI scored five runs in the first inning and added four more in the second en route to a 19-5 victory over Mars Hill Tuesday, July 31.
The game was called after four innings due to the time limit.
Consecutive hits by Karee Bagley, Georganna Curtis, Ava Stacey, Julia Bartley and Nora Curtis keyed the first-inning rally.
Sophia Stephenson opened the second inning with a double and scored after Olivia Locke reached on an error. Sam Edgecomb followed with an RBI on a groundout, before Morgan House singled and came across on a home run off the bat of Emily Straetz.
In the third, Julia Bartley tripled and then four consecutive walks and a two-run double by Straetz led to another five-run outburst.
Stephenson’s three-run homer capped another five-run inning in the fourth.
Mars Hill scored a single run in the second when Izabel Pryor tripled and was knocked in when Brinleigh Kingsbury grounded out.
Mars Hill tacked on another four runs an inning later, taking advantage of some pitching wildness as four batters walked and another was hit by a pitch. Callie Thomas provided the only hit of the inning — an infield single.
Straetz and Locke pitched two innings each for the winners.
Presque Isle defeated Caribou and Ashland in early-round games to reach the finals, while Mars Hill nipped Fort Fairfield, last year’s tourney champion, 14-13, to advance. Those were the five teams competing in the single-elimination tournament played at Presque Isle High School’s softball diamond.
The tourney is for girls between the ages of 8 and 12.
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- Emily Straetz, right, leads a parade of Presque Isle players through the handshake line after their win over Mars Hill in the NMCRA junior girls softball championship game played Tuesday, July 31. (Kevin Sjoberg)
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- Olivia Locke of Presque Isle throws out a Mars Hill player at first base during the Tuesday, July 31, NMCRA junior girls softball championship game. (Kevin Sjoberg)
