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ELLSWORTH – Nine days ago the Bucksport softball team pounded out 11 hits in a home game against Ellsworth.
The Golden Bucks certainly wanted to replicate, and even better, the effort in Monday’s return matchup against the Eagles. The trouble was, Ellsworth’s improved defense was ready with timely plays.
So the Golden Bucks turned to sacrifices and groundouts rather than big hits to move runners. Two sacrifice flies and an RBI groundout, plus another fine pitching outing, lifted Bucksport to a 6-3 victory.
Junior Kelly White threw a one-hitter for her fifth win and second of the season over the Hancock County rival Eagles. Coach Michael Carrier’s Golden Bucks, now 8-1, have won eight in a row after dropping their season-opener to Brewer. Ellsworth falls to 4-5.
Bucksport had beaten Ellsworth 11-1 April 30. Eagles coach Lorne Guy was hoping Monday’s matchup would be a lot closer.
Ellsworth never led, but Bucksport never put the game out of reach, either.
“Our confidence level has gone up a lot and I think the girls are starting to believe in themselves,” he said. “It’s been a struggle to get to this point and I think they’ve shown a lot of maturity. … These are the games it’s nice to fight in and nice to get into.”
Bucksport scored two runs in the first inning thanks to smart baserunning and some Ellsworth miscues. Jessica Taylor led off with a single, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Jana Richards sacrifice fly to left-center. Heather Pelletier walked in the next at-bat and got all the way home on a throwing error.
Leah Page tripled to deep center field to lead off the second for the Bucks. She scored on an Elissa Gordon groundout for a 3-0 lead.
“That’s the stuff that wins games,” Richards said. “You move people around, that’s how you score. In key situations that’s what it comes down to.”
Ellsworth came back in the bottom of the second thanks to Katie Sirois, who singled and took advantage of two groundouts and a wild pitch to round the bases and make it 3-1. Hiedi Chan added another run on a walk, groundout, error, and fielder’s choice to get the Eagles within one.
Richards scored again in the fifth and the Bucks added two more runs in the seventh. One of those came when White hit a sacrifice fly to plate Annette Caswell.
Pinch runner Tara Dyer put another run on the board for the Eagles in the bottom of the seventh. White ended the game with a strikeout with a runner at second.
White stuck with a blazing fastball and mixed in off-speed pitches for five strikeouts and three walks.
“We went with a lot of fastballs working in and out today,” White said. “We threw in a few changeups to catch them off guard.”
Guy was pleased that the Eagles made the most of their baserunning opportunities Monday.
“We’re pretty quick when we run the bases and I don’t want to say that we rattled them, but we scored some runs that were not on base hits,” he said. “It was us putting the bat on the ball and making things happen.”
Ellsworth’s Ashley Dugas gave up just four hits in the loss. She struck out three and walked seven.
Golden Bucks 6, Eagles 3
Bucksport (8-1) Ellsworth (4-5)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
Taylor, 2b 4 2 1 0 Chan, cf 2 1 0
Caswell, cf 4 1 1 0 Silsby, ss 3 0 0
Richards, c 2 1 0 1 Roberts, rf 3 0 0
Pelletier, ss 2 1 0 0 Sirois, 3b 2 1 0
White, p 3 0 0 1 Breach, dh 3 0 0
Page, 1b 3 1 1 0 a-Dyer 0 1 0 0
Gordon, 3b 3 0 0 1 Saunders, c 3 0 0
Tweedie, rf 1 0 0 0 Miller, 2b 2 0 0
McAllian, lf 2 0 0 0 Tripp, 1b 3 0 0
Patten, lf 2 0 0 0
Totals 24 6 3 3 Totals 23 3 1 0
a-ran for Breach in the seventh
Bucksport 210 010 2 ? 6
Ellsworth 011 000 1 ? 3
E?Gordon, Taylor; Silsby, Sirois, Dugas, Saunders; LOB?Bucksport 7, Ellsworth 2; 2B?Caswell; 3B?Page; SB?Taylor, Richards; SF?Richards, White
Bucksport IP H R ER BB SO
White (W,5-0) 7 1 3 1 3 5
Ellsworth IP H R ER BB SO
Dugas (L,1-2) 7 3 6 2 7 3
HBP?McAllian by Dugas; WP?Dugas 4; White; PB?Richards; Saunders 2; T?1:25; ATT?75 (est.)
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