BREWER – The postgame celebration was somewhat muted; no screaming or pig pile or fist-pumping. But that may have been because the Brewer softball team set off all the sparks it would need during the game.

The young Witches, who have relied this year on pitching and defense, let loose on offense Tuesday afternoon in the Eastern Maine Class A final against Brunswick. Top-seeded Brewer peppered the No. 3 Dragons with 15 hits while not giving much up on defense en route to a 10-1 victory at Coffin Field.

“I’m just so happy for the kids,” said Kelly Cookson, Brewer’s 12-year coach. “They’ve never experienced this and it’s fabulous to watch how happy they are.”

The high-powered offense, plus a Jordan McLain four-hitter, combined to put the Witches in their first state final since 1990 and give Cookson her first title in four tries.

Brewer, which lost in last year’s EM final, will face the Portland, a 3-1 winner over Scarborough in Tuesday’s Western Maine championship game. The Class A state final is Saturday at 4 p.m. at Gorham High School.

The Witches have run into some trouble this season against slower pitchers. Brewer knew early that Brunswick’s Chelsea Blais didn’t have much speed but Brewer adjusted. The first six batters in the lineup combined to go 13-for-18 with two doubles and eight of nine starters recorded at least one hit.

“We knew she had a changeup so we had to wait on it more so than we had before and just crush it,” said senior shortstop Amy Freeman, who was 3-for-3 with three singles, a walk and four runs scored.

In addition to Freeman’s effort, Sarah DeFilipp was 3-for-4; freshman McLain was 3-for-4 with a double, two singles and three runs scored; Anna Corey had an RBI double; Christine Thoms had an RBI single; Vanessa Michaud was 2-for-4 with two RBIs; Katie Quimby chipped in with a two-run single.

“Our kids can hit,” Cookson said. “We can hit straight through the lineup. I just had that feeling we were going to hit and Jordan was going to pitch big and they weren’t going to be able to catch up to her.”

Just as Blais (16-3) was unable to adjust to the Witches, the Dragons grew frustrated with their inability to catch up to McLain’s fastball – and deal with her intimidating grunt.

“The speed and grunt. We haven’t faced the grunt, either,” Brunswick coach Trent Hutchinson said. “They made fun of it early but I told them, you can’t. You obviously have to go into the batter’s box and hit the ball. … They just simply outplayed us and outhit us, no question. We made mistakes and we couldn’t hit the ball.”

Brewer took what turned out to be a commanding lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a two-run single by McLain and a Kim Foster RBI single.

From there the Witches added one run in the second, four in the fourth, and one more each in the fifth and sixth.

“It’s nice to have a lead early,” McLain said. “It helps a lot to know that you are up so if they score one or two it’s OK.”

Brunswick got a run in the second as Michelle Fields (single) scored on a Whitney Thurlow sacrifice fly. But the Dragons had just three hits after that, including a seventh-inning double by Thurlow.

Brunswick was making its first regional final appearance since 1997 when the Dragons were in the Western Maine Class A game and lost 2-1 to Edward Little of Auburn.

WITCHES 10, DRAGONS 1

Brunswick (16-3) Brewer (17-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Jen.Timmreck, cf 3 0 0 0 Freeman, ss 3 0

Pollack, rf 3 0 1 0 DeFilipp, rf 4 1 0

Quinlan, rf 0 0 0 0 Corey, cf 3 1 1

Flanagan, 3b 3 0 1 0 Thoms, 3b 2 1 1

Jes.Timmreck, pr 0 0 0 0 McLain, p 4 2

Fields, ss 3 1 1 0 Michaud, lf 4 0 2

Kemmerle, 1b 2 0 0 0 York, lf 0 0 0

Blake, lf 2 0 0 0 Foster, dh 4 0 2

Bonaccorso, ph 1 0 0 0 Bennoch, c 0 0

Thurlow, dh 2 0 1 1 Quimby, 2b 3 0 2

Lawrence, 2b 0 0 0 0 Hanlon, 1b 4 0 0

Barnes, c 2 0 0 0

Blais, p 2 0 0 0

Totals 23 1 4 1 Totals 30 10 15 10

Brunswick 010 000 0 ? 1

Brewer 310 411 x ? 10

E?Fields; LOB?Brunswick 4, Brewer 8; 2B?Thurlow; Corey, McLain; DP?Brunswick; S?Blake; SF?Thurlow; SB?Fields, Jes. Timmreck

Brunswick IP H R ER BB SO

Blais (L,16-3) 6 15 10 10 3 1

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

McLain (W,8-1) 7 4 1 1 1 3

T?1:32; ATT?200 (est.)