Kelley, Barry help ASA team gain berth in national tourney

Hermon High students Ashley Kelley and Lily Barry turned in big efforts as their Amateur Softball Association team won the U16 New England Championship last weekend in Waterville.

The Scarborough-based Southern Maine Flame Black team went 4-0 to earn the regional title which qualifies the Flame for the ASA Eastern National Championship tournament. Flame coach Steve Martin said the team won’t participate in that tournament because it has already accepted an invitation to compete in another national tournament.

Barry and the University of Maine-bound Kelley, who both played for Hermon High during the spring season, contributed in all four games in the tournament at Thomas College.

The Flame are coached by Steve Martin of Cape Elizabeth, whose daughter Colleen Martin played on Cape Elizabeth High’s Class B state championship team this spring.

In the first game, a 10-3 win over Maine state champs Capital Mainiacs of Augusta on Friday, Kelley tossed five scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. She also recorded an RBI single. Barry singled in the game.

The Flame then beat New Hampshire state champs from Dover, N.H., 2-1 Saturday. Barry singled, scored a run and recorded an RBI.

Sunday morning, Kelley struck out seven in four innings during a 9-1 win over the Southern Maine Flame Red squad. She also tripled and walked twice.

Kelley came up huge in Sunday’s championship game, a 2-1 victory over the Connecticut Tradition. The Flame had rallied to tie the game at 1-1 when Martin pinch-hit Kelley in the seventh. She responded with a triple to deep right-center and was able to come home on the throw with the championship-winning run.

The Flame will move on to a college showcase in Connecticut this weekend and then it’s off to the PONY Nationals in Vienna, Ohio, which will be held July 30-Aug. 4. Martin had already accepted an invitation to play in that tournament before the Flame won the ASA New England tourney. The ASA Eastern tourney is Aug. 2-5 in Sterling, Va.

The Flame’s U12 team also won a New England championship and plans to play in the Eastern Championship, which will be held in York, Pa.

The Hermon girls have been a good addition to the team, Martin said.

“Obviously you get arguably the best pitcher in the state, and Lily’s done a fantastic job,” Martin said of Kelley and Barry, respectively. “We were looking for an 11th player, someone who wanted to learn a whole lot. Lily’s been good for us.”

Barry was a shortstop for Hermon this year but has been playing in the outfield for the Flame. Martin uses her defensively in almost every game, but she can hit, too – Barry recorded a grand slam in a recent game.

Kelley, who last week made a verbal commitment to play for the University of Maine starting in 2009, will be a senior at Hermon this fall. She was named to the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B first team.

Martin said he knew he had a strong team, but the Flame’s results have been even more impressive considering their youth – eight of the 11 girls on the team still have another year of eligibility at the U16 level.

They won’t stay there for long, however.

“We won’t spend another year here,” Steve Martin said. “We seek a level of competition greater than us. The only way to do that is to move up to U18. That way we keep the team together and that keeps Ashley in the fold.”