Class B softball

BANGOR – The weather may have been hot, but Hermon High School’s Wendy Davis had ice running through her veins on Wednesday afternoon.

With the mercury climbing over the 80-degree mark at the Union Street Softball Complex, Davis, the Hawks’ senior pitcher, remained cool as she faced a hard-hitting Winslow lineup.

Davis pitched an impressive four-hitter as the Hawks won the Eastern Maine Class B softball championship with an 8-1 victory over the Black Raiders.

The victory sends the fourth-ranked Hawks, now 14-5, into Saturday’s state Class B title game against Western Maine champ Oak Hill of Sabbatus. Oak Hill defeated Wells 1-0 Wednesday.

Winslow, which was looking to repeat as EM titlists, finished the season 17-2.

“I think Wendy would probably agree that this was the game of her life,” said head Hawk Vince Marzilli. “She was really on today. She was able to keep it knee high from the mound to the plate.”

“I knew I just had to get my head in the game and give it everything I could,” said Davis, who walked only one batter. “I wasn’t going to predict anything. I just wanted to take each inning pitch by pitch.”

Davis admitted she was nervous before the game, but by the time she took the mound, her teammates had staked her to a 4-0 lead.

Heather Pace ripped a two-out single to left center to start the first inning rally. Renee Richardson followed that with an infield hit before Heidi Pace’s single to right center made it 1-0. Jen Johnston doubled – Hermon’s fourth straight hit – to make it 2-0.

A passed ball and an error made it 4-0 before Winslow got out the inning.

Heather Pace added an RBI single in the fifth to make it 5-0 before Winslow put forth its biggest offensive threat in the home half of the sixth.

April Doyon reached base on an error and Heather Twombley reached safely with an infield hit after two Hermon players miscommunicated on an infield pop-up. Another throwing error put runners on second and third with nobody out and Winslow’s three, four, and five hitters heading to the plate.

Davis then induced three straight outs without one ball leaving the infield. Jamie Pomerleau’s ground-out to third base scored Doyon with Winslow’s lone run.

“They thought they were going to get a rally, but we just said, `No more errors!’ ” said Heather Pace, who plays second base. “After that sixth inning, they were down wicked bad.”

The Hawks added three more runs in the top of the seventh. Marcie Burr had a two-run double while Heather Pace added an RBI single.

Twombley’s two singles led Winslow while Burr, Johnston, and Renee Richardson each had two hits for Hermon.

“We knew we had to hit the ball,” Pace said. “We were all pumped and ready.”

So was Wendy Davis, who remained cool under some pretty hot conditions.

Hawks 8, Black Raiders 1

Hermon Winslow

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Bogan, rf 4 1 0 0 Doyon, ss 3 1 0 0

Burr, cf 4 2 2 2 Twombley, lf 3 0 2 0

Hea.Pace,2b 4 1 3 2 Pomerleau, rf 3 0 0 1

Richardson,ss 4 1 2 0 Desmond, c 3 0 0 0

Hei.Pace,c 4 1 1 1 Roy, 1b 3 0 0 0

Johnston, lf 3 1 2 1 Lizotte,dh 2 0 1 0

Devlin, 1b 2 0 0 0 c-Paquette 0 0 0 0

Doughty, 3b 2 1 1 0 Sanborn, 3b 2 0 0 0

Maskus,dh 3 0 0 0 a-Albee 1 0 0 0

Trapnell, 2b 3 0 1 0

b-Poulin 0 0 0 0

Morneau, cf 3 0 0 0

Totals 30 8 11 6 Totals 26 1 4 1

a-struck out for Sanborn in the fifth

b-pinch ran for Trapnell in the fifth

c-pinch ran for Lizotte in the seventh

Hermon 400 010 3 – 8

Winslow 000 001 0 – 1

E – Hea. Pace, Richardson, Devlin; Roy 2, Pomerleau, Desmond, Sanborn, Trapnell. 2B – Burr, Johnston 3B – Richardson LOB – Hermon 4, Winslow 5 DP – Trapnell to Doyon to Roy SB – Bogan, Hea.Pace, Richardson S – Devlin

Pitching Summary

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Hermon

Davis (W, 14-5) 7 4 1 0 1 3

Winslow

Burton (L, 17-2) 7 11 8 2 1 4

WP – Davis 2; Burton TIME -1:17