BREWER – With two of its regular-season losses coming against undefeated Jonesport-Beals, the Bangor Christian softball team knew exactly what to expect from the Royalettes and hard-throwing pitcher Tricia Carver.

So to prepare for Thursday’s Eastern Maine Class D championship game against No. 1 Jonesport-Beals – the No. 6 Patriots got out the pitching machine, cranked the speed up to 55 miles per hour, and hit.

The high-speed work paid off as the Patriots pounded out 10 hits and used smart baserunning to knock off Jonesport-Beals 6-5 at Coffin Field Thursday. The win is Bangor Christian’s first-ever regional title in softball.

Bangor Christian, now 10-8, will face Buckfield in Saturday’s Class D state championship game at St. Joseph’s College in Standish at 4 p.m. Jonesport-Beals wraps up its season with a 17-1 record.

Although the win was an upset, the Patriots had been working up to hitting off Carver ever since they lost to the Royalettes 4-0 in the 1998 regional final. In this regular season, Jonesport-Beals won the first game 14-2 but eeked out a 5-4 victory in the second contest.

“[Carver is] so confident on the mound and the girls have always have that little bit of fear,” said 12-year Bangor Christian coach Tom Obey. “She’s just very aggressive and she’s a great pitcher. Today happened to be a good day with the bats.”

Lari Sobey, who pitched three innings of one-hit, six-strikeout relief, drove in the winning run in the seventh inning with a sacrifice fly that plated winning pitcher Renee Mick, who had tripled to left field.

Starting pitcher Mick and Sobey combined for 10 strikeouts and three walks while allowing seven hits.

“I wanted to throw strikes, do what I needed to do, pitch it in, keep them low, let my defense work behind me,” Mick said.

The Patriots put together a two-run first inning with hitting and speed. After Rachel Sage reached on an error and Heather Niles singled, Sobey and Heidi Niles both recorded RBI groundouts with Sage and Heather Niles both scoring from second base.

Jonesport-Beals retaliated in the bottom of the first, when Carver slammed a hit to deep center field that rolled to the 230-foot fence for an inside-the-park home run. But Bangor Christian added three more runs in the second inning on RBI singles by Sage, Heather Niles and Mick to take a 5-1 lead.

“They hit the ball well but we made some [fielding] errors and we made some baserunning errors and that helped them out a little more than it should have,” Jonesport-Beals coach Diane Clark said.

After Sobey’s sacrifice fly gave the Patriots a 6-4 lead, Carver and the Royalettes threatened in the bottom of the seventh with another run. But Sobey struck out the final two batters with runners on first and second.

“It’s awesome – to beat an undefeated team is so cool,” Sobey said. “A lot of our games we lost by one in the last inning or extra innings, so this is awesome, to finish in the last inning.”

Sage, Heather Niles and Meridith Moores each finished with two singles.

Carver struck out four and walked one. She recorded two singles along with her home run, including an infield hit that plated Mattie Alley in the fourth inning. Lindsey Faulkingham had an RBI groundout in the third inning.

Patriots 6, Royalettes 5

Bangor Christian (10-8) Jonesport-Beals (17-1)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Sage, 2b 4 2 2 1 A. Merchant, c 3 1 1 0

Hea. Niles, lf 4 2 2 1 T. Carver, p 4 3 3 2

Mick, p-1b 4 1 3 1 Faulkingham,2b 4 0 1 1

Sobey, ss-p 3 0 1 2 Durkee, 1b 3 0 0 0

Hei. Niles, 1b-c 3 0 0 1 C. Carver, 3b 4 0 0 0

L. Phinney, c 0 0 0 0 C. Woodward,ss 4 0 0 0

Snow, ss 0 0 0 0 Chandler, dh 2 0 1 0

Clement, dh 4 0 0 0 H. Alley, cf 0 0 0 0

Moores, 3b 4 1 2 0 a-J. Woodward 0 0 0 0

Haverlock, cf 3 0 0 0 b-Berry 0 0 0 0

Carmichael, rf 2 0 0 0 d-R. Merchant 1 0 0 0

c-Pelletier 1 0 0 0 M. Alley, lf 3 1 1 0

C. Emerson, rf 3 0 0 0

Totals 32 6 10 6 Totals 31 5 7 3

a-ran for Chandler in the fourth

b-ran for Chandler in the fifth

c-grounded out for Carmichael in the sixth

d-struck out for Chandler in the seventh

Bangor Christian 230 000 1 – 6

Jonesport-Beals 102 100 1 – 5

E – Snow 2, Moores, Mick, Hei. Niles; Faulkingham 2 3B – Mick HR – T. Carver LOB – Bangor Christian 8, Jonesport-Beals 8 DP – Mick-Hei. Niles-L. Phinney SB – Sage; A. Merchant, T. Carver SF – Sobey

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Bangor Christian

Mick (W,6-3) 4 6 4 3 2 4

Sobey (S,2)) 3 1 1 0 1 6

Jonesport-Beals

T. Carver 7 10 6 5 1 4

WP – Mick 2 PB – A. Carver 2 TIME – 1:44 ATTENDANCE – 132