BREWER, Maine — The undefeated Limestone/MSSM Eagles fought down to the very last pitch during the June 21 Class D state championship in Brewer but ultimately, rival Richmond High School Bobcats earned the victory, an undefeated record and the State Champion title.
“(Our team) have nothing to be ashamed of,” asserted Limestone’s team manager Mariah Williams of the Eagles’ performance this season. “They’re proud; they know it.”
Saturday’s game got off to a rough start for Limestone as the Bobcats scored five runs in the top the first inning with four hits, two walks and three errors.
Limestone Coach Andrew Kirby attributed the first-inning errors to nerves.
“Typically, we’ll have one or two errors a game — if that — and we had a lot in the first inning,” he said. “A lot of it was just nerves in that first inning.”
The Eagles were shut down in the bottom of the first, with Bobcats pitcher Meranda Martin striking out Limestone third baseman Ellyzabeth Bencivenga and senior catcher Kelsie Albert; Chelsey Pelkey’s grounder to shortstop was scooped up, and she was thrown out at first.
Martin would go on to strike out 11 players and walk just two while giving up nine hits.
“For a Class D pitcher, she is as close as you can get to phenomenal,” said Limestone sophomore first baseman Madeline Williams.
The Eagles chipped away at a comeback, but the Richmond team didn’t relent; Limestone earned back five runs, but the Bobcats tacked on six more.
Limestone pitcher Melissa Cantafio afforded seven hits and five earned runs; the Eagles had a total of four errors and Cantafio walked nine batters — seven of which ended up scoring. Though Cantafio admitted she was a bit fatigued after the June 18 victory over the Deer Isle-Stonington Eastern Maine final, during which she struck out 11, walked one, hit three batters and afforded only three hits, Richmond first baseman Kelsie Obi said that Cantafio was one of the best pitchers they’d faced all year.
“She threw hard,” Obi said. “She was better than I thought she was going to be.”
Both Richmond and Limestone peppered the scoreboard consistently, each having only three scoreless innings, but Richmond surged to a considerable lead by the third inning, with a score of 8-1.
Kassee Albert’s triple in the fourth inning was met with errorless defense by the Bobcats, though Jackie Peers succeeded with a sacrifice bunt to bring Albert home.
Limestone gained a bit of momentum in the fifth inning when Bencivenga kicked the Eagles off with a double, followed by Kelsee Albert’s walk and Cantafio’s RBI single. With one out, Williams stepped up to the plate and belted a two-RBI double — but the Bobcats quickly quashed the momentum, with second baseman Cassidy Harriman catching Kassee Albert’s pop-up and Martin striking out Jackie Peers.
A couple runs forward and a couple runs back, Limestone’s tenacity kept the team fighting for the title down to the very last at-bat — even the very last pitch.
The last play of the game, senior pitcher and number-four batter Cantafio drove one deep toward the left-center fence, which was caught by Richmond center-fielder Autumn Acord in an ESPN-worthy sprinting reach.
Team manager Williams, who’s watched the Eagles excel over the past two years, was not surprised by her team’s unrelenting drive toward victory.
“No matter what, we know that the sixth inning, seventh inning — we can always come back,” she said.
Part of that cohesiveness, Williams explained, is due to the fact that “ if you’re not related, than you’re pretty much best friends.”
“They get along really well, and I think that’s what makes it so easy to motivate each other,” she added. “They’re so good because they work so well together.”
After the Bobcats collected their State Champion trophy, Limestone’s senior battery — cousins Cantafio and Kelsee Albert — weren’t ready to leave the game behind.
“It’s kind of sad,” Cantafio said.
But when she and Albert first came on the team as freshmen, “This has been a legacy that we’ve kept on,” she said, explaining how the Eagles went to Eastern Maine’s back in 2005. “We brought it back and went to States this year, so we’ve just kept improving. We’ve always made it to semifinals since freshman year, and now to make it to States is a big accomplishment.”
It was the first time Limestone had won the Eastern Maine softball title since 1990, back when the school was Class C.
Though Cantafio and her fellow seniors, Albert and Jordyn Hopkins, have concluded their time playing as Eagles, Cantafio maintains high hopes for next year’s team.
“They’re all very young, there’s only two juniors and most of them are sophomores and a couple freshmen, so if they keep doing what we’ve been practicing all year long, they’ll be back here next year,” she said.
Kelsee Albert said that the team’s strength were “a little bit of everything.”
“Everyone could field, everyone could hit,” she said.
For first-year coach Kirby, he’s proud of the team’s 18-1 record.
“The girls had a great season this year; going undefeated back to back is not an easy thing to do, and they put everything they had into it this season and it showed,” he said, describing how they’re a talented group of players. “To make it to the state championship is not an easy thing to do, and that was their goal after their loss last year to get back this far.”
Even with the state championship loss just minutes behind him, coach Kirby couldn’t help but grin when asked why he’s most proud of his team.
“The work ethic that they have,” he said. “Every day in practice they came in ready to work, they put the time in. Softball is their favorite sport, and they really work together well.”
This was the team’s second came at the Coffin Field in Brewer; the Eagles soared over Deer Isle-Stonington team on June 18 during the Eastern Maine Class D softball final. During that game, the Limestone/MSSM team had 13 hits.
