Beadnell leads Bowdoin to title

Jessie Beadnell of Millinocket has returned home after completing her first year at Bowdoin College in Brunswick where she also completed a dazzling first season as a pitcher for the Polar Bear softball team.

Press releases about Beadnell’s final, and most impressive, accomplishment describe it as “nothing short of awesome.”

That statement refers to the fact Beadnell pitched two, six-hit shutouts Saturday to lead Bowdoin to its first-ever New England Small College Athletic Conference softball championship.

Bowdoin, seeded second, upset defending champion and top-seeded Tufts University 6-0 on its home field in Medford, Mass., in the championship game after beating No. 3 Trinity College of Hartford, Conn., 2-0 in the first round.

Beadnell not only pitched the back-to-back wins, but she drove in the first run of the Trinity game with a single.

From her home in Millinocket on Wednesday, the pre-med major was reluctant to take the credit for Bowdoin’s 9-6 championship season.

“We had a really good team, with a lot of good hitters,” she said.

But good hitters aren’t all Bowdoin had, as the record will show: Bowdoin had Beadnell. A rookie pitcher, Beadnell set four Polar Bear records and tied one.

Beadnell holds the record for most wins in a season with nine, breaking Paula Tremblay’s record of eight in 1986 and 1987; most shutouts in a season with four, breaking the record of three shared by Tremblay, 1986, and Melissa Conlon, 1990; most strikeouts in a season with 31, breaking Tremblay’s 1986 record of 22; and most innings pitched in a season with 98, breaking Conlon’s 1991 record of 88 1/3. With three consecutive shutouts in a season, she tied Conlon’s 1990 record.

Beadnell had talked with Coach John Cullen and knew she would be pitching for Bowdoin, so she worked all year long on her delivery. Nonetheless, it was still a major change from the schoolgirl scene where she was in the cirle three years for Stearns and was that team’s Most Valuable Player.

Adjusting to college pitching, Beadnell said, “was more mental” than anything else. “The adjustment is how you set up for batters, what you’re going to pitch.”

Other Bowdoin records set this season included the career home run record of four set by Laura Martin, breaking the record of three set by Sandy Hebert in 1983-84; and most stolen bases in a career with 23 by Cathy Hayes, breaking the record of 21 set by Naomi Schatz from 1986-89.

Beadnell was on the money in talking about the strength of the hitters, but she should have included herself, as no less than seven players hit .300 or better, including Beadnell.

First baseman Martin was the team leader with a .431 average in 15 games, which included three doubles. Outfielder Jennifer Davis hit .424 in 11 games with two doubles; shortstop Hayes hit .388 in 15 games with one double; and catcher Camy Shuler hit .344 in 14 games, including three doubles.

In 15 games, Beadnell hit one double while averaging .333 at the plate, followed by sophomore letterwinner Amy Aselton of Milbridge.

An infielder, Aselton hit .300 in 12 games and had two doubles. The other .300 hitter was freshman second baseman Fran Infantine, who played in all 15 games and hit one double.