STANDISH – The Monmouth Academy softball team may have relied on small, infield hits in Saturday’s Class D state championship game, but their achievement loomed large.

The Mustangs opened the game against Bangor Christian with three straight bunts, stole seven bases and took advantage of five walks. Senior Lisa Hasch did the rest, pitching a one-hitter and striking out 12 as Monmouth rolled to a 6-1 victory over the Patriots at St. Joseph’s College’s Ward Field.

The win was the Mustangs’ fourth state championship in five years, and the school has now won at least one state crown in each season this year. Monmouth is moving up to Class C next year.

Hasch was almost unhittable, Alicia Drake went 3-for-4 with three singles, and Emily Gauthier sparked the Mustangs with an RBI single in the first. But the big hero was coach Rachel Bernier, who has been with the Mustangs since 1990 and won’t be back next season.

It was an emotional afternoon for the team.

“Not only do we have five seniors graduating, but it’s Bern’s last game, our last year in Class D, and we wanted to go out in style,” said Hasch, who picked up her third state championship pitching win in four years.

Bernier had taken an administrative position at Buckfield High last fall. The school wants her to focus on her new post next year rather than coach on the side.

“[Buckfield] gave me a gracious opportunity to coach one more year,” said Bernier, who took a minute to collect herself before answering questions.

The Patriots, who shook off a six-game losing slump in May only to get to their fifth straight Eastern Maine final last week, close their season with a 13-7 record.

Drake and Michelle Plourde led off the game with consecutive singles. Bekah Bubier tried a third bunt, which was mishandled by the Patriots, allowing Drake to score and sending Plourde to third.

“We realized they were kind of playing back, kind of on their heels, and we decided to catch them not looking and bunt up the first-base line,” Drake said. “It worked. And we love to baserun. It’s one of our strong points. We were going to run until they got us.”

Gauthier drove in Plourde on a single to left-center. BC’s sophomore pitcher Kara Hartman struck out two of the final three batters to end the inning.

Amy Parsons added another run in the second on a walk, an error and a wild pitch. The Mustangs scored twice in the second (Hasch’s RBI single plated Gauthier and Drake singled, stole second, got to third on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on a wild pitch).

“[The bunts] did catch us off-guard,” Bangor Christian coach Tom Obey said. “We got off to a bad start. … They did a real good job coming out. I thought we would play those well. We did not. We just made a couple of errors early.”

Hartman struck out 10 but also walked five, two of which turned into Mustang runs.

Monmouth stranded 11 runners, thanks to Hartman’s strikeouts and good BC defensive plays.

“They left runners on almost every inning and we had trouble getting runners on,” Obey said.

Meredith Moores scored Bangor Christian’s run with two outs in the third. She walked, stole second, and went for a steal of third. Monmouth catcher Parsons, trying to stop Moores, overthrew the ball into left field and Moores scored.

Renee Mick had the Patriots’ lone hit. She singled in the second inning, reached second on a Nicole Pelletier groundout and got to third on a wild pitch. Hasch struck out the final two batters of the inning to end the threat.

Mustangs 6, Patriots 1

Bangor Christian (13-7) Monmouth (18-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Moores, ss 2 1 0 0 Drake, ss 4 2 0

Miller, cf 3 0 0 0 Plourde, 3b 3 1 0

Phinney, c 3 0 0 0 Bubier, 2b 3 0 0

Mick, 2b 3 0 1 0 Gauthier, cf 3 1 1

Pelletier, lf 3 0 0 0 Hasch, p 4 0 1

Sage, 1b 3 0 0 0 b-Saucier 0 0 0

Snow, 3b 2 0 0 0 Baran, 1b 3 1 0

Wiswell, rf 2 0 0 0 Brown, lf 2 0 0

Labbe, dh 2 0 0 0 c-Rioux 0 0 0 0

Parsons, c 3 0 0 0

a-Crocker 0 1 0 0

d-Mulcahy 1 0 0 0

Jackson, rf 3 0 1 0

Totals 23 1 1 0 Totals 29 6 8 2

a-ran for Parsons in the second; b-ran for Hasch in the second and third; c-ran for Brown in the sixth; d-struck out for Parsons in the sixth

Bangor Christian 001 000 0 ?1

Monmouth 210 201 x ?6

E?Hartman 2, Phinney; Plourde 2, Crocker; LOB?Bangor Christian 2, Monmouth 11; S?Bubier; SB?Moores, Miller; Drake 2, Bubier, Plourde, Gauthier, Brown, Jackson

Bangor Christian IP H R ER BB SO

Hartman (10-5) 6 8 6 0 5 10

Monmouth IP H R ER BB SO

Hasch (10-2) 7 1 1 0 1 12

WP?Hartman 6, Hasch; PB?Phinney 3; T?1:56; ATT?250 (est.)