Five Pandas relish titles in four different sports State softball crown latest for Lee Academy

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Most student-athletes dream of winning a state championship before their high school careers are over.

The dreams of five Lee Academy female student-athletes have come true – four times over in four different sports.

The Pandas’ 1-0 win over Buckfield in Saturday’s Class D softball state final means that one Lee senior will graduate with one state title in four out of five team sports and four other underclassmen earned their fourth state title, too.

Kerri Harris, who starts at shortstop for the Pandas, also starts on the basketball and soccer teams and ran cross country.

The Pandas won the 2005 state basketball title with a 64-25 victory over Hyde of Bath. They took the 2005 state soccer title with a 1-0 win over Greenville. Lee’s cross country title came in 2004.

“It’s pretty impressive,” Harris said of the teams’ achievements in the last two years. “Not a lot of people can say that.”

Although Harris has been a key player on all three teams, some of the members of this year’s sophomore class have also played roles on all four teams.

Brooke Harris, Kerri Harris’ cousin, earned the win as Lee’s starting pitcher Saturday, and was the Pandas’ top finisher (fourth overall) in the 2004 state cross country meet.

Aarika Ritchie singled and scored the winning run Saturday and caught for Brooke Harris, and also scored the game-winning soccer goal against Greenville.

Amanda Gifford scored nine points in the 2005 state basketball final and had one of Lee’s four hits against Buckfield.

Laci McLaughlin, who also plays tennis for Lee, started in left field Saturday.

Kerri Harris attributed the success to the fact the sophomore class is so close, and that those girls meshed well with the upperclassmen.

“Most of these younger girls have been playing together most of their lives,” Harris said. “We’ve just been playing together the past few years. We all work well together.”

The Pandas didn’t have a strong team finish at the 2005 cross country state meet, most likely because Classes C and D have been combined into one Class C. Lee finished seventh out of 10 teams but easily beat traditional Class C teams from Telstar of Bethel and Hall-Dale of Farmingdale. And the Pandas did win the Eastern Maine Class C crown.

Orono seeking girls hoop coach

Orono is seeking a girls basketball coach after Tim Baude’s resignation last Thursday.

Baude stepped down after three seasons to spend more time with his family, which includes a young daughter.

Orono athletic director Mike Archer said Baude’s resignation was “a little sudden” but understandable. The Red Riots’ summer schedule meant Baude would have to spend significant time away from his family.

“After he set up the summer schedule and realized there was a stretch where he wasn’t going to [see his family] and he started to think about it,” Archer said. “I told him, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do when it comes to your family.”

Archer said he hopes to have a new coach in place sometime this summer, but with the schedule set for now he doesn’t feel like there’s a rush.

“It’s not the worst time for this to happen,” he said. “It could have been seven days before the season started.”

Baude shepherded the Red Riots to a 21-34 record through a transition period in which they were one of the smaller teams in Eastern Maine Class B, then dropped down into a tough Class C schedule.

He took over for Steve Gardner, who coached Orono to Class B two state titles and 15 postseason appearances in 21 seasons.

“Tim did a great job. He did all the things I asked him to do,” Archer said. “It’s a hard thing to follow someone like Steve Gardner, someone who reaches that level of success. I think we were about where we should have been this season. We beat the teams we were supposed to beat and lost to the teams we were supposed to lose to.”

Baude was the freshman girls coach before stepping up to varsity. He works in the Orono town recreation department.

Pitcher’s development key

Lee pitcher Brooke Harris made her second straight appearance in a Class D state championship game Saturday.

The 1-0 win over Buckfield showed a marked improvement over her first, a 7-3 loss to Richmond last year. And that’s been a big key to the Pandas’ season this year.

“She’s improved greatly over last year,” Lee coach Ron Weatherbee said. “She did a great job as an incoming freshman, with all the pressure that goes with that. She seems to be more of a pitcher now.”

Harris said the loss in last year’s game gave her some valuable experience.

“We played [well] in the state game but I think we could have played a little bit better,” she said. “We had a couple of errors and got down in the game, but we came back in the end.”

The Pandas tried to rally from a 7-0 deficit in the top of the seventh last year but fell short.

Although Lee only had four hits in that game, Richmond took the lead in part because Harris issued four walks and gave up 11 hits in six innings, and the Pandas committed three errors.

This year Harris walked just one while striking out five and allowing two weak infield hits. And the Pandas were perfect in the field.

“She’s using her pitches more than before,” Weatherbee said. “And she’s got better control of all those pitches. It’s not like she’s pitching and hoping they’re strikes. She’s got a better idea of where she’s putting the ball.”

Only four Buckfield players reached base Saturday. Catcher Ritchie said Harris was able to keep the Bucks off-balance in part because the two batterymates decided to try a different pitch that clearly worked.

“They were ready for a fastball pitch so we changed it up a little bit for a curve,” Ritchie said.

Competition helped Bucksport

The Bucksport softball team can thank the stiff competition it faced in the regular season in part for its Class B state championship.

The Golden Bucks went undefeated this season, which culminated in Saturday’s 8-6 win over Cape Elizabeth, and they did it against a number of good teams with better-than-average pitchers.

Eastern Maine squads such as Mount Desert Island, Hermon, Ellsworth and John Bapst of Bangor all offered strong competition in the Penobscot Valley Conference.

All four of those teams got strong pitching from Nia Megquier (MDI), Ashley Kelley (Hermon), Catie Cravens (Ellsworth) and Gwen Wadleigh (Bapst).

“We’re playing in the toughest league around now,” Bucksport Michael Carrier said. “The pitching seems to have stepped up this year. Some of those young girls last year that were good last year have really stepped up this year.”

Carrier was impressed with the pitching from George Stevens of Blue Hill and Searsport, the two EM Class C teams the Bucks had on their schedule.

“Even the C teams we played threw strikes,” he said. “Back 20 some-odd years ago, when I got started, those teams wouldn’t have been bad. It has advanced tremendously.”

Bucksport beat two Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams to get to the state championship game. The Bucks beat No. 8 Medomak Valley of Waldoboro 3-0 in the quarterfinals and then took out No. 1 Winslow, which was also undefeated, 3-1 in the Eastern Maine final.

Bucksport beat No. 3 Ellsworth 4-1 in the semis.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.