Buswell fires two-hitter, Buckfield rolls past Lee

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BREWER – With just two days between Friday’s regional championship games and Monday’s state title matchups, teams scurried for scouting reports on their opposition. The Lee Academy softball team, the Eastern Maine Class D champ, was no different in trying to get information about Western Maine winner Buckfield.

Among the tidbits the Pandas discovered, the Bucks liked to bunt and run the bases. And they had a good pitcher.

Turns out the analysis was accurate.

Buckfield junior Danielle Buswell hurled a two-hitter with 13 strikeouts, and the Bucks pounded out 16 hits en route to a 13-0 triumph in the Class D state final at Coffin Field Monday afternoon.

It was the first state championship for Buckfield (19-2) since 1999 and sixth overall.

Here’s what Buckfield knew about Lee: Katie Harris, the Panda pitcher, would be slower than the Bucks were used to facing.

The Bucks struggled early adjusting to Harris’ slower, underhanded style. Harris held Buckfield scoreless through the first two innings.

But once the Bucks adjusted to the pitching, they cruised.

In the third inning, Melissa Samson drove in Lindsay Marston, who had singled, giving Buckfield a 1-0 lead. The Bucks added three more runs in the fourth, including an RBI on Marci Litchfield’s double, an RBI single by Buswell and an RBI groundout by Marston.

“Katie did a good job hitting her spots the first two or three innings and after that she wasn’t quite as precise,” Lee coach Kirk Ritchie said. “We needed her to move it in and out and mix up her speeds. You only miss by an inch against a team that swings like that and they’re going to hit it hard.”

Buckfield scored three more in the fifth, one in the sixth and piled on five runs in the seven, putting the game out of reach for the normally hard-hitting Pandas.

“We’re used to faster pitching,” Buswell said. “We just figured out to wait up a bit, have a short, fast bat swing.”

All nine hitters in the Bucks’ order tallied at least one hit. Jessica Newton went 3-for-5 with a double and two singles, and Samson was 3-for-4 with three singles and a sacrifice bunt. Even the pinch hitters got involved in the seventh inning: Leslie Workman drove in a run on a fielder’s choice and Heidi Darling singled in a run.

Buckfield created a lot of scoring opportunities, moving runners on stolen bases, sacrifice bunts and groundouts.

“They ran well,” Ritchie said. “They did about what I expected they were going to do. … They ran the bases well. They’re aggressive, they’re a fundamental, strong club.”

The Bucks also took advantage of Lee errors. In the fourth inning, Chelsey Bouchey hit a towering fly ball to right field, but two errors in the outfield allowed her to get to third base, and she scored on Litchfield’s double. In the fifth, an overthrown ball in the infield plated a runner for Buckfield and helped another get to third.

Buswell struck out the side in the first and third innings.

She had to work out of a jam in the third. Lee’s Jenna Boulrisse drew a leadoff walk and pinch-runner Samantha Cole went to second on a wild pitch. Buswell struck out the next batter but walked Desiree MacDonald. Jessie Kuester hit an infield single to load the bases.

Buswell needed just eight pitches to strike out the final two batters of the inning.

“I used all of my pitches, tried to figure out which ones weren’t working, and by the end I had it figured out,” Buswell said.

Lee’s Shelby Pickering also singled.

BUCKS 13, PANDAS 0

Buckfield (19-2) Lee (15-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Newton, ss 5 2 3 1 Kuester, 3b 3 0 0

Samson, cf 4 2 3 1 D. Ham, 2b 3 0 0

Bly, 3b 3 2 1 1 Mallett, lf 3 0 0

c-Mauro 0 0 0 0 Pickering, c 2 0 0

Boucher, 1b 4 1 1 1 Harris, p 2 0 0

Violette, c 4 1 2 0 d-M. Ham 1 0 0

e-Bennett 1 0 0 0 Linscott, ss 3 0 0

Litchfield, lf 2 1 1 2 Boulrisse, dh 2 0

f-Workman 1 0 0 1 a-Cole 0 0 0 0

Hayes, rf 3 1 1 0 Gifford, rf 0 0 0

Martson, 2b 5 2 1 2 Hersom, 1b 2 0 0

Buswell, p 2 0 2 2 g-Bouchard 1 0 0

b-Darling 1 1 1 1 MacDonald, cf 2 0 0

Totals 35 13 16 12 Totals 24 0 2 0

a-ran for Boulrisse in the third; b-ran for Buswell in the fourth, singled for Buswell in the seventh; c-ran for Bly in the sixth; d-struck out for Harris in the sixth; e-struck out for Violette in the seventh; f-reached on fielder’s choice for Litchfield in the seventh; g-struck out for Hersom in the seventh

Buckfield 001 331 5?13

Lee 000 000 0 ? 0

E?Marston; Pickering 2, Mallett, Linscott, Gifford, Hersom, MacDonald; LOB?Buckfield 9; Lee 6; 2B?Newton, Litchfield; DP?MacDonald-Harris-Kuester; S?Samson, Buswell; SB?Samson 3, Newton, Violette, Marston

Buckfield IP H R ER BB SO

Buswell (W, 13-2) 7 2 0 0 3 13

Lee IP H R ER BB SO

Harris (L, 15-4) 7 16 13 7 5 3

WP?Buswell 3; PB?Pickering; T?1:38; ATT?200 (est.)