It’s pretty clear what Brooke Harris is, aside from being a fine soccer and basketball player and a junior at Lee Academy.

She’s also a groundball pitcher for the Panda softball team that will play in the Class D state championship Saturday, when Lee hopes to defend its 2006 title.

Lee (13-7) will meet Western Maine champion Buckfield (13-3) at 4 p.m. at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

The game will be a rematch of last year’s state final, a 1-0 Lee win. It will also be Lee’s fifth appearance in the state game since 2002 and its last before moving to Class C next year.

Harris helped the Pandas get back to the state game by throwing a three-hitter in a 10-0 EM final win over Van Buren. She had seven strikeouts and two walks and, for the second game in a row, didn’t allow a ball to be hit out of the infield.

In fact, just one of the 78 outs Harris has induced in four playoff games was recorded in the outfield. That out was made in right field during Lee’s 7-1 quarterfinal win over Katahdin of Stacyville.

Just what does Harris, who is averaging 3.7 hits allowed per game in the playoffs, throw so well to induce so many ground balls?

“Really, everything’s been working well when we need it to, but I think it’s her curveball,” said Lee catcher Aarika Ritchie, who has been catching Harris for three seasons and now calls most of the pitches herself. “It ends up outside and it’s off the end of the bat. We’re calling that on a lot of 0-2 counts and it really throws off the batters.”

Harris has been throwing the curve for several years but has relied on it even more this year.

“I just kept working on it this year and added in a screwball,” she said. “That hasn’t been moving as much as I like, so I rely on my curveball when I want a lot of movement, then my changeup if I need it.”

Harris can tweak it depending on the batter and what she and Ritchie see during the opposition’s batting practice. Harris also changes speeds with the curve.

“Usually it curves from right to left, and if not, it drops if I don’t throw it as hard,” she said. “I’ve started working on a slower curve where it looks weird and moves different.”

Of course, in order to make groundballs work for a pitcher, the defense has to be strong.

Although Lee is averaging 2.5 errors per game in the playoffs, the Pandas committed just one in the EM final.

“Everybody has done a good job defensively, especially in big games when we need to be focused,” said Ritchie, who was named to the Penobscot Valley Conference Class D first team along with Harris and teammates Dana Houghton and Amanda Gifford.

The defense in last year’s Class D state game was even better. Lee didn’t commit an error in the win over Buckfield at Brewer’s Coffin Field and Harris allowed just two hits – and two outs in the outfield.

Lee didn’t fare as well the year before, when it also went to St. Joseph’s and wound up with a 7-3 loss to Richmond. The Pandas committed three errors and were outhit 11-4.

“Last year it was an awesome game,” Harris said. “I pitched well and the defense was good so we’re hoping we can do that again. Last time we were at [St. Joseph’s] we didn’t play so well. Hopefully, this time we’ll have better luck there.”