BREWER – Many successful softball pitchers baffle opposing hitters with an amazing array of offerings.

They’ll dazzle you with a drop. They’ll confuse you with a curve. They’ll rudely rip a rise right by you.

And then there’s St. Dominic High sophomore Audrey Pleau’s recipe for success.

After tossing a nifty four-hitter against the previously undefeated defending state champs from Mattanawcook Academy on Saturday to give the Saints a 4-0 win and their first Class C state title, it didn’t take her long to outline her entire arsenal.

“[There’s] just one,” she said with a grin as her teammates celebrated at Coffin Field.

It’s a fastball. Sort of. And she throws it every … single … time.

“They all have different movements depending on how I let go of it at the time,” she said.

And does she every really know where the ball is going to end up?

“Nope,” she said, chuckling again. “[But] my pitch is usually on the outside corner.

That worked fine for the left-hander, as the MA hitters never really figured out where her deliveries were going to end up either: Pleau struck out four, walked two, and stymied a potent MA attack that had scored 10 runs or more in 17 of their previous 19 games.

The Saints of Lewiston finish 16-3 while the Eastern Maine champion Lynx of Lincoln end up 19-1.

MA coach Dean Libbey said he was stumped by his team’s struggles at the plate.

“We hit a drought,” he said. “We haven’t had that experience for the whole season. I don’t know if it was because the ball came from the left-hand side or what. She pitched real well and kept us at bay.”

Meanwhile, the Saints scraped up two runs in the second, one in the fifth and another in the seventh against hard-throwing senior Kari Vance.

St. Dominic coach Dan Samson said a short scouting report prepared the Saints for Vance.

“A couple of our pitchers went to the same pitching school as she did, and they told us she was good,” he said. “So we prepared. We cracked the [pitching] machine open. You put the machine at 90 mph and you know you can hit anybody.”

The Saints never actually teed off on Vance – the senior star allowed just five hits and struck out six – but they did get more than enough support for Pleau.

Kat Vincent got St. Dominic on the board in the top of the second when she boomed a leadoff triple to right and trotted home on Tyler-Rose Scammon’s grounder back to Vance.

Scammon reached safely when Vance’s throw was off the mark, and she eventually came around to score on a Sara Caron groundout.

Vance, too, had no explanation for MA’s offensive drought.

“I guess it was an off day,” she said. “I figured once we got through the batting order, we’ve all seen her and we’d all be ready to hit. But it didn’t work like that. Nobody was ready to hit today, so it was a little rough.”

Libbey said that after the way the Lynx had hit the ball all season, he felt confident entering the game.

“We were flying pretty high coming in here, and we felt that anybody who came in here should be finding out about us,” he said, explaining that he really hadn’t heard much about the Saints.

“Unfortunately, St. Dom’s is a real good team.”

Pleau added a double for the Saints, who didn’t have a repeat hitter in their win.

Vance doubled for MA while Brandi Rideout, Lacey Whitney and Ashley Carver had a single each.

Saints 4, Lynx 0

St. Dominic (16-3) Mattanawcook Acad. (19-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Morrissette, ss 4 0 1 1 Rideout, 1b 3 0

Dorso, 3b 3 0 1 0 Haines, rf 3 0 0

Perrault, lf 3 0 0 0 C. Carver, 2b 2 0 0

Vincent, c 3 0 1 0 Vance, p 2 0 0

a-Turcotte 0 1 0 0 b-Murchison 0 0 0

Scammon, 1b 3 1 0 1 Allen, 3b 2 0 0

Gray, rf 3 0 1 0 Mansur, cf 3 0 0

Staszak, 2b 3 1 0 0 Whitney, c 3 0 0

S. Caron, dh 3 0 0 1 A. Carver, ss 3 0 0

R. Caron, cf 0 0 0 0 d-Littlefield 0 0 0

Pleau, p 2 0 1 1 Leighton, lf 2 0 0

c-Harper 0 1 0 0

Totals 27 4 5 4 Totals 23 0 4 0

a-ran for Vincent in the second; b-ran for Vance in the fourth and fifth; c-ran for Pleau in the fifth and sixth; d-ran for A. Carver in the fifth

St. Dominic 020 010 1 ? 4

Mattanawcook Acad. 000 000 0 ? 0

E?Vance, Rideout, Allen; LOB?St. Dominic 4, Mattanawcook Academy 5; 2B?Pleau; Vance; 3B?Vincent; S?Dorso; SB?Harper

St. Dominic IP H R ER BB SO

Pleau (W, 11-2) 7 4 0 0 2 4

Mattanawcook Acad. IP H R ER BB SO

Vance (L, 18-1) 7 5 4 2 1 6

WP?Vance; PB?Whitney; T?1:29; ATT?275 (est.)