Fort Kent softball team posts strong season

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Fort Kent softball coach Tamar Philbrook hasn’t been keeping track of statistics for the Warriors this season. In the two previous years she coached the team, she never needed to.

Now that Fort Kent has closed out the regular season with a 13-3 record, its best finish in recent memory, it might be time to do that, Philbrook said with a laugh recently.

“It’s been incredible,” she said.

In three years before this season the Warriors were 8-38 and hadn’t had a .500 season since going 8-8 in 1995.

The key, Philbrook said, has been an outstanding freshman class and a steady pitcher.

Junior Meaghan Minzy, a windmill pitcher, has thrown every game for Fort Kent this year.

“She’s not fast but she’s accurate,” Philbrook said. “She lets people hit and the girls field behind her.”

Freshmen Mindy Morneault, a third baseman, and first baseman Ashley Desjardins have been two big contributors. Morneault hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning of Friday’s 11-7 win over Caribou.

“They’ve both come on as really strong hitters,” Philbrook said.

Philbrook was feeling confident heading into the season despite last year’s 4-12 record. The Warriors lost only two players to graduation and she was encouraged based on Fort Kent’s preseason workouts.

“I really was, just because of the indoor practices we’d been having,” she said. “The team has really pulled together well. They all get along with each other.”

The Warriors’ three losses have come against Class C Madawaska and twice to Class B rival Houlton.

Fort Kent is excited by its record, but admittedly it reflects a relatively weak schedule based on the Heal points. Through 12 games the Warriors were ranked second behind Houlton in the Northeastern division of Class B. But the Warriors’ tournament points put them seventh overall in Class B behind the Shiretowners and five Southeastern division teams.

It didn’t help that Class A Presque Isle dropped Fort Kent from its schedule this season.

“Maybe now they’ll want to play us again,” Philbrook said with a laugh.

Reynolds a bright spot for Hawks

It hasn’t been an easy spring for the Hermon softball team, which has just one win this season, but catcher Jody Reynolds has quietly put together some impressive offensive and defensive numbers.

The senior has committed only two errors this year and had a fielding percentage of .968. She has thrown out 18 of 24 base runners who have tried to steal on her. She has only logged one passed ball.

And, according to Hermon coach Nancy Deshane, she has taken at least seven hard hits this year while trying to block the plate while facing a base runner.

Reynolds has a lot of opportunity to make those plays because Hermon’s pitchers tend to walk a lot of batters during games.

“Still, what she has done is phenomenal to me,” Deshane said recently. “She’s been a wall.”

Oh, Reynolds is also leading the Hawks offensively for the third year in a row with a .467 batting average. She has started all but two games in four years for Deshane (one game was missed due to injury, the other for a family event).

Reynolds is heading to Husson College in Bangor next year and is hoping to play softball for the Braves, Deshane said.

Kristy Veazie is Bentley-bound

It’s easy to understand why Dexter multi-sport standout Kristy Veazie picked Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., over her other college options. First, Bentley has a good business program, and Veazie sees herself going into business in a few years. Second, the Bentley field hockey team won the NCAA Division II title in 2001. And third, the Falcons’ top two scorers are graduating.

And field hockey scoring is what Veazie knows best. The 83 goals she scored in four years on the Dexter varsity team is likely a Maine high school record.

“Bentley has better business and it makes a difference if you have Bentley on your resume,” Veazie said Saturday after running with the Dexter girls team at the Eastern Maine Class C track and field championship meet. “[Bentley coach Kelly McGowan] is really, really nice, really personable. A goalie and I were the only recruits and she really kept in touch with me, kept up with how I was doing with basketball.”

Veazie, who also plays softball – that’s four sports – has a partial academic scholarship. Bentley does not offer athletic scholarships.

Two big changes in her freshman year will be playing without her sister Brittany, a junior on all four teams with Veazie, and without mom Margaret Veazie, who coached Kristy all four years of field hockey and the past two years in basketball.

“Right now I think we need a little time away from each other,” Kristy said of her sister. “I think when I’m gone it’ll be hard. We always had each other for sports and it’s going to be hard not to play with her and have her around to talk to.”

Veazie was also considering the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.