OAKLAND — The Lewiston softball team proved the old adage that if you can put the ball in play, there’s no telling what will happen.
In a matchup of two of the top softball teams in Class A North this season, the Blue Devils forced Messalonskee into six errors and then held off an Eagles rally in the late innings to post a 7-4 win in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference game Monday afternoon.
The win was the fourth in the last five games for Lewiston (10-3), while Messalonskee (9-5) fell for the third time in its last four.
Unofficially, the Eagles remained in the third spot in Class A North, fewer than four Heal points ahead of the Blue Devils.
“We kind of jumped on them early, and it’s always good when you get a team to take their first pitcher out,” said Lewiston senior third baseman Jordan Mynahan, who snared a line drive to end the game with two Eagles on base in the seventh. “When they make the errors, you have to capitalize on those, and the (walks).”
Lewiston scored all seven of its runs in the first four innings. The Blue Devils tagged Messalonskee starter Danielle Hall for all seven of those runs, though only two were earned.
“It was hard to watch,” Messalonskee coach Samantha Moore said. “It’s so confusing. I don’t know which team is going to show up.”
Lewiston needed only six hits to produce all of its scoring. Five different positions in the Messalonskee lineup were charged with errors.
“You’ve got five, six, seven, eight, nine teams that can beat anybody. No game’s a gimme,” Lewiston coach Mike Child said. “We can do that to a lot of teams and put pressure on them.”
Tale of two games
After racing out to the 7-0 advantage through the top of the fourth, things got dicey for Lewiston.
Messalonskee scored two in the fifth and two more in the sixth and put two runners on in the seventh before coming up short against reliever Megan Theriault.
“We’ve got to start stringing it all together the full seven innings, because it’s getting old,” Moore said. “It’s getting old fast. It’s been like this the last week and a half.”
Lewiston, meanwhile, went quiet at the plate. The Blue Devils managed just one hit — a single up the middle from Abby Chartier to lead off the seventh — over the final three frames.
“If I told you I wasn’t nervous, I’d be lying to you,” Child said. “You’re not going to hold a team like that forever.”
Relief effort
Messalonskee senior Mackenzi Veilleux was outstanding in her 3 2/3 innings of relief work.
She inherited a runner in scoring position and watched her defense commit two errors behind her upon entering the game. She eventually cleaned up the mess to end the fourth.
That touched off a stretch in which Veilleux retired seven straight Blue Devils and 10 of the final 11 Lewiston batters to close out the game.
“She hits her spots, and that’s what we needed,” Moore said. “She throws batters off-balance with a different speed and then lets the defense do the work.”
Theriault, too, while not as dominant as Veilleux, was very good in a high-leverage situation. She retired the first two she faced in the sixth to keep that inning from blowing up into a big one for the Eagles, and in the seventh, she pitched around a pair of singles to get out of the jam.
“She’s not really a relief pitcher, she’s really either a No. 1 or a No. 2,” Child said of turning to Theriault in relief of starter Danielle Cyr, who was perfect through three innings and faced only one batter over the minimum through four.
“It’s like they feed off each other. When one comes out, the other one comes in and tries to pick up the slack. Today, it worked against a really good team.”
Stat sheet
In a game with 14 hits, only Messalonskee’s Alyssa Genness enjoyed a multi-hit day, going 2 for 4 with a run scored. … Mynahan’s RBI double in the fourth chased Hall and handed Lewiston a 5-0 lead at the time. … Neither Blue Devil pitcher, Cyr or Theriault, issued a walk.
Up next
Lewiston hosts Class B Lawrence on Wednesday, while Messalonskee is at Bangor on Friday. Both Lawrence and Bangor are fighting for playoff spots in the season’s stretch run.
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