BANGOR – It took just one hit, albeit a big one, for the Brewer softball team to grab hold of the top seed for the Eastern Maine Class A playoffs.

Junior Christine Thoms’ home run over the center field fence at Bangor High propelled the Witches to a 1-0 victory over rival Bangor Tuesday afternoon as both teams closed out the regular season.

Of course, there was more to it than that – like Jordan McLain’s three-hitter and the Witches’ ninth straight victory and three-game season sweep of the Rams.

Defending EM Class A champ Brewer, now 14-2, had already sewn up its third straight Penobscot Valley Conference title. Tuesday’s win, according to coach Kelly Cookson, means the Witches will leapfrog Brunswick in the Heal point standings.

“We knew going in if we won this we’d be the first seed, so that was another motivation,” McLain said.

Brewer was in second place, 2.3 points behind Brunswick, in the standings released Tuesday. Brewer’s win over sixth-ranked Bangor, now 10-6, will likely be worth more than Brunswick’s game against seventh-ranked Oxford Hills of South Paris.

“We want that home dugout,” Cookson said.

The Witches are 10-1 at Coffin Field in Brewer this year.

Thoms’ homer was her fourth this year and first ever at Bangor High. She drove a one-out, 1-1 pitch from Amy Wadleigh over the 200-foot center field fence.

Thoms could tell the ball was going far when it left her bat.

“I just felt like I had fully extended, a good swing,” she said. “It just felt good.”

The home run was Thoms’ only hit of the game because Wadleigh walked her twice – the only two walks given up by the freshman.

“It was supposed to be low and outside and afterwards she said, ‘That’s what you get when you miss your spot.’ Yup, that’s what you get,” Bangor coach Nancy Snowdeal said. “But that’s a good learning experience for her. You can’t make a mistake to a hitter like that.”

Wadleigh scattered six hits and struck out eight.

“She’s improved a lot since we’ve seen her and we haven’t faced pitching like that in the past two weeks so it took us some time to catch up,” Cookson said. “Christine came through and when you have Jordan sometimes that’s all you need.”

The Witches had four of their six hits in the fourth inning. Anna Corey followed Thoms’ homer with a double but she was eventually thrown out at the plate while trying to score on a Sarah Risser single. Becca York, who hit three singles, also singled in the fourth.

Kate Turner had two singles for Bangor, including one in the bottom of the seventh as the Rams tried to mount a rally.

McLain had retired 14 batters in a row when Kelly White hit a one-out ground-ball single. After a flyout, Turner singled to right, allowing White to scamper to third, but McLain induced a groundout to end the game.

“I threw a lot of different things today,” McLain said. “I was changing it up a lot.”

Neither team committed an error.

WITCHES 1, RAMS 0

Brewer (14-2) Bangor (10-6)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

McLain, p 3 0 0 0 Hackett, 3b 3 0 0

DeFilipp, ss 3 0 0 0 Stevenson, dh 3 0 0

Thoms, 3b 1 1 1 1 White, ss 3 0 0

Corey, cf 3 0 1 0 Godinez, cf 3 0 0

York, rf 3 0 3 0 Turner, 1b 3 0 0

Risser, c 3 0 1 0 Tweedie, rf 1 0 0

Hanlon, 1b 3 0 0 0 Webb, lf 1 0 0

Hawkins-Kmbll, lf 3 0 0 0 Gray, lf-rf 2 0

O’Connell, 2b 2 0 0 0 Porter, c 2 0

Lorenz, 2b 1 0 0 0 Angst, 2b 1 0 0

Fahey, 2b 1 0 0 0

Totals 25 1 6 1 Totals 23 0 3 0

Brewer 000 100 0 – 1

Bangor 000 000 0 – 0

LOB-Brewer 5, Bangor 3; 2B-Corey; HR-Thoms (4); DP-Turner-White; S-Tweedie

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

McLain (W, 11-1) 7 3 0 0 0 6

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Wadleigh (L, 4-2) 7 6 1 1 2 8

T-1:09; ATT-100 (est.)