UMF hopes to keep upsetting opponents

Looking back on how the UMaine-Farmington softball team won the North Atlantic Conference championship, coach Bob Leib still has a hard time believing the Beavers have advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament.

But some big early season defensive changes and a strong showing of resiliency in the conference tourney have boosted UMF to the national level, where the Beavers will face Keene State in the regional today at noon.

With a 9-8 win over Elms in the conference final, UMF earned the No. 6 seed in a six-team regional at Babson Park, Mass., where they’ll play the No. 3 Owls in the double-elimination tournament. There are eight regionals across the country, and each regional winner advances to the championship tourney at Peace College in Raleigh, N.C.

The Beavers were ranked seventh in the NAC tournament and had to beat No. 1 Elms twice, which they did 2-1 in the first game and then the dramatic 9-8 win. Pitcher Stephanie Moriarty was named the tourney MVP.

“We were kind of a big surprise,” Leib said earlier this week. “We went in No. 7 and I don’t think anyone expected us to do what we did.”

In the final game, UMF scored three runs in the top of the seventh to erase a 5-2 deficit with two outs, sending the game to extra innings. Bangor’s Megan McCrum had an RBI single in the seventh and Brandi Rideout of Mattawamkeag hit a two-run double to tie the game. Each team scored once in the eighth, and then the Beavers piled on three runs in the top of the ninth, including a McCrum RBI double.

The Blazers scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth, but Moriarty induced an infield popup to end the game and lift UMF into its first NCAA tourney,

“It was the most bizarre game,” Leib said. “It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

The Beavers also earned a 1-0 win over Lasell in the single-elimination quarterfinals, fell to Elms 1-0 before bouncing back for a 7-3 win over Becker, which led to a 7-3 over Thomas and the berth against Elms in the finals.

UMF’s postseason success might have been a matter of a team finally gelling. Two weeks into the season Leib had made so many changes to his defense that by the time the NAC tourney opened the only starters in their original positions were catcher Holly Tripp of Ellsworth (.274, 11 RBIs), ace pitcher Moriarty (1.50 ERA, 13-5, 108 strikeouts), and center fielder Kristi Cochin of Springvale (.357, 11 RBIs).

“Our outdoor team became quite different from our indoor team,” Leib said. “We made so many mistakes that we were beating ourselves.”

Even senior Mary Berry of Norridgewock, the team’s offensive leader with a .426 average and 16 RBIs, moved from third base to first to the outfield ? anywhere to keep her bat in the lineup.