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BREWER – Softball fans couldn’t have asked for a better matchup in the Class B state championship game than Eastern Maine champ Erskine vs. Western Maine winner Greely.
Make that Katie Mainville vs. Sarah Bennis. Or no-hit, 21-strikeout Eastern Maine final performance vs. three-hit, 11-strikeout Western Maine final effort.
The two senior pitchers didn’t disappoint when it came down to the state title Monday evening at Coffin Field right into the 10th inning.
Bennis ended up with the win, foiling Mainville’s stellar game, thanks to a Stephanie Ginn’s RBI single in the top of the 10th that gave Greely of Cumberland Center a 1-0 victory.
The state championship is the first for Jim Seavey’s Rangers, who wrap up their season at 19-2. It was also Greely’s first time in the title game.
The Eagles (17-4) were making their third appearance in the Class B state game in three years. They won it in 2000 but fell to Gray-New Gloucester last year, also by a score of 1-0.
Bennis carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and had 13 strikeouts at the end of the seventh inning. She allowed just two hits from there and finished with 14 strikeouts.
“She’s a good pitcher,” Erskine coach Carl Gartley said. “I was a little surprised, I thought we’d get at her a little better than we did. We hit a lot of choppers right back to her.”
Bennis, in fact, assisted on nine putouts, including all three in the bottom of the 10th.
“Sarah has been excellent,” Ginn said. “She has kept us in the games, our defense has kept us in the games. She’s been really confident and she’s what has been holding us together.”
Mainville, who gave up just four hits overall, had her no-hitter broken up in the fourth. She also fanned 13 through seven innings, and totaled 17 strikeouts.
Three of those strikeouts were Ginn’s responsibility. So it seemed unlikely that the sophomore would do much when she walked to the plate with two outs and Michelle Robb at second base.
“I was incredibly nervous at the plate but I just told myself, three strikeouts, but I can do it, I can pull it off,” Ginn said. “I just knew we have to hold them.
Instead of ending the inning in her at-bat, Ginn bounced a 1-1 fastball down the leftfield line and into the outfield. Robb came around to score and was mobbed as she walked into the dugout.
Robb had singled to lead off the inning. She went to second on a Bennis sacrifice bunt.
Greely left the bases loaded in the ninth thanks to Mainville’s pitching and some softball strategy. Mainville fanned the first batter of the inning and walked the second, Ashley Germond. She went to second when Jen Blumenthal reached on an error, which put Germond at third. Blumenthal stole second, opening up first base for an intentional walk to Erica Gagne. The Eagles were hoping for a force at home.
Mainville struck out the next batter and first baseman Callie Thomas fielded a ball hit to her and stepped on the base to end the threat.
Mainville allowed just two baserunners before that inning, and one was thrown out at second.
Erskine looked sharp in the field – both teams committed just one error apiece – but was unable to get its bats going. In the fifth, Thomas drew a leadoff walk, but Bennis picked up two straight strikeouts. Jamie St. Amand singled, moving Thomas to second. Another Bennis strikeout ended it.
“We had a couple of chances, runners in scoring position, and we didn’t come up with a hit,” Gartley said. “They did. Good job Greely.”
RANGERS 1, EAGLES 0
Greely (19-2) Erskine (-417)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
Blumenthal, ss 4 0 1 0 Emerson, cf 4 0
Gagne, rf 3 0 1 0 Angell, c 4 0 0
Davis, 3b 4 0 0 0 Mainville, p 4 0 0
Fillion, 1b 4 0 0 0 a-M. Horak 0 0 0
Robb, lf 4 1 1 0 L. Horak, ss 4 0 0
Bennis, p 3 0 0 0 Thomas, 1b 3 0 0
Sicard, 2b 3 0 0 0 Gerrard, rf 4 0 0
c-Hawkes 1 0 0 0 Oxley, 2b 4 0 0
Ginn, c 4 0 1 1 St. Amand, 3b 3 0 0
Germond, cf 3 0 0 0 Cloutier, lf 2 0 0
b-Burke 1 0 0 0
Totals 33 1 4 1 Totals 33 0 2 0
a-ran for Mainville in the fourth; b-struck out for Cloutier in the fifth; c-struck out for Sicard in the eighth
Greely 000 000 000 1?1
Erskine 000 000 000 0?0
E?Blumenthal; St. Amanda; LOB?Greely 5, Erskine 4; S?Bennis; SB?Blumenthal; Gerrard
Greely IP H R ER BB SO
Bennis (W, 18-1) 10 2 0 0 1 14
Erskine IP H R ER BB SO
Mainville (L, 12-3) 10 4 1 1 2 17
T?1:36; ATT?250 (est.)
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