Edward Little’s Maddie Thistlewaite is tagged out at home by Lewiston catcher Megan Gosselin during Tuesday afternoon’s game at Auburn Suburban. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
AUBURN — Lewiston jumped on the scoreboard and never looked back. Neither did Edward Little.
The rivalry between the two neighboring schools was meaningful when they met on the softball diamond Tuesday, but both the Blue Devils and Red Eddies were ready to look ahead to the Class A North playoffs after Lewiston’s 12-7 victory at Sweetser Field to end the regular season for both.
“Once they put up some on the board, we forgot what they were doing and focused on things that we needed to work on,” EL coach Elaine Derosby said. “So we became a little bit more aggressive on the bases. We know we’re in the playoffs and we were striving to win this game, but we also we’re striving to win this game in a way where, ‘What can we do next week? What can be our strategies? Who can we do things with?’ So we tried a couple different things.”
The Blue Devils (13-3), who finish the regular season on an offensive tear, kept their attack going in the top of the first. Jordyn Rubin walked to lead off, then a pair of errors sandwiched a Meagan Gosselin RBI single. Gemma Landry scored when Jordan Mynahan’s fly ball wasn’t caught, and Gosselin later scored on a wild pitch.
“It’s been coming around since — I mean, the Hampden game we didn’t hit, so I take my hat off to them — but ever since the (Messalonskee) game, I tell you, we’ve been just hitting the ball,” Lewiston coach Mike Child said. “I don’t know if it’s what we’re doing in practice or the girls are just coming around after 15, 16 games.”
The Red Eddies (9-7) got one run back in the bottom of the first thanks to a leadoff single by Emmy Lashua and three walks drawn against Lewiston starting pitcher Dani Cyr.
The teams traded runs in the second. Gosselin tripled in Landry in the top half, then Jordan Cummings singled home Lashua in the bottom half.
Back-to-back doubles by Emily Mousseau and Skylar Gelinas kept the Blue Devils’ offense going in the third. Gelinas’s two-bagger drove in Mousseau, and Gelinas and Abby Chartier later both came home on an error. Rubin then singled in Kallie May to make it 8-2 Lewiston.
EL knocked out Cyr after Chantel Ouellette was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the third and Anna LeBlanc followed with an RBI double.
“Dani struggled a little bit today, but, you know, she’s pitched well in all the big games,” Child said. “Meg T comes in, she’s ready to throw.”
Meg Theriault came in and walked Maddie Thistlewaite, but she then induced consecutive grounders to get outs at third and home. The Blue Devils did get one run across on Lashua’s infield single, but Caroline Hammond was caught on the base paths to end the inning.
“We ran into some outs in that inning that maybe we could have scored some more runs, but that’s an inning where, why can’t we try at this point to make something happen? And if it works, great, if it doesn’t we can re-evaluate,” Derosby said.
A Gelinas double and an error drove in three more runs for Lewiston to make it 11-4 after four.
Hannah Smith relieved Ouellette in the fifth for the Red Eddies, and she got into a jam but was able to get out of it, thanks to a bases-loaded grounder right back to her that she quickly threw home for an out. A flyout — the first time Gelinas was retired all game — ended the threat.
Landry drove in Lewiston’s final run in the top of the sixth before EL struck for three runs in the bottom half. Lashua doubled in one run, then an error and a wild pitch brought home two more.
“We put some runs on the board. We didn’t score a run last time,” Derosby said.
Theriault earned the win with five innings of relief pitching. She scattered four hits and two walks while striking out five. Cyr allowed three hits and four walks while striking out three in her two-plus innings of work.
Ouellette took the loss with 11 runs on seven hits, but six of the 11 runs were unearned. She walked three batters and struck out two. Smith gave up five hits in three innings of relief.
“We’re going to put today away, we’re going to put the season away,” Derosby said. “Tomorrow, everybody is back to square one, 0-0, and anything can happen.”
Child said ending the regular season with a road win against a rival means “big momentum” for his team heading into the playoffs.
“I think the girls are ready,” Child said. “We’ve been ready for the last six games or so.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
Lewiston’s Megan Gosselin safely dives headfirst into third base before Edward Little’s Emma Desjardins can field the throw during Tuesday’s game in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
After being caught in a rundown EL’s Caroline Hammond dives back to second but not in time as Lewiston’s Emily Mousseau tags her out during Tuesday’s game in Auburn. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
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