Maine Junior champions open with 3 softball wins

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Hampden-Newburgh-Winterport Junior League state champion softball team won its first three games at the Eastern Regional Tournament Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon, HNW beat the Maryland state champs 6-4 and then downed Delaware 2-1 in the tourney for ages 13 and 14. Both games were won with last at-bat rallies.

“We’ve pulled out the last two games in the last inning and they don’t give up until the last at-bat,” said coach Dave Plowman. “Winning the first game Saturday gave us a lot of confidence. Maryland was favored to win it by a lot of people and we beat them first.”

Michelle Wells and Lacey Littlefield scattered seven hits while notching 10 strikeouts against Maryland. Mikki Libbey (two singles), Amanda Palmer (two singles), Kate Plowman, and Tara Utecht hit four straight singles to score three runs in the final inning.

In the second game, Littlefield and Wells combined on a three-hitter with seven strikeouts and one walk.

“I think we’ve made two errors in three games and the pitching’s been very good,” Plowman said. “We’ve only issued about five walks and they’ve struck out about 27 batters.”

Kate Plowman led off the last inning with a double and Eva Shannon walked. Two outs later, Utecht walked to load the bases, and Libbey followed with her second single of the game, a game-winning two-run job.

On Saturday, Hampden-Newport-Winterport defeated Vermont 6-3 as Littlefield and Wells combined on a five-hitter with nine strikeouts.

HNW was led offensively by Kasey Belcher, who hit three singles. Plowman, Libbey, and Amanda Palmer each had two singles. Defensively, the team had no errors.

HNW (Maine) will take on New Jersey Monday and New York on Tuesday in the round-robin tournament. Maine is the only 3-0 team in its bracket right now.