When Biddeford’s Jen Dutremble rounded second after hitting a shot to left in the fourth inning of Friday’s game at Bonny Eagle it looked like the Tigers might be in the midst of a one-out rally in the scoreless game.
But Dutremble stutter-stepped rounding second before deciding to continue to third. That hesitation was costly, as left fielder Ashley Perrone ran down the ball and quickly got it into shortstop Kelly Johnson, who turned and fired to Jess Bettney at third.
Biddeford’s clean-up hitter was tagged out and in the bottom half of the inning the Scots put across the only runs of the game, winning the late-season match-up of two highly-ranked teams, 7-0.
“If she doesn’t hesitate she’s at third and maybe we take the lead, maybe we score six runs,” said Tigers coach Leon Paquin. “The next inning we made a mistake and when you open the gate a little bit things can snowball, and that’s it.”
The score certainly wasn’t indicative of the game, which was otherwise a tight pitchers’ duel between Bonny Eagle’s Kaitlin Williams and Biddeford’s Michelle Gagnon. Williams scattered four hits, while Gagnon – outside of the five-hit, seven-run fourth – gave up only two.
With the postseason set to begin next week, the contest was played with the Class A west Heal points in mind.
“This was huge because of the standings,” Scots coach Jan Corliss said. “Both teams came in 11-2. With this win, if we beat Cheverus or Scarborough, we’ll finish at least number two. This was pivotal because if we lost today we probably end up fifth.”
Gagnon set down 10 of the first 11 batters she faced, but in the third hit Natasha Taylor and Sarah Violette with pitches in back-to-back at-bats. The threat was erased, however, when Taylor was thrown out stealing and Kelly Johnson went down swinging.
Bonny Eagle wouldn’t let the next chance slip away. With one out, Courtney Wallace singled, Bettney reached on an error and Jess Nassetta knocked the ball back through the middle, off Gagnon’s pitching hand, scoring pinch runner Meagan Johnson.
Williams then bunted her way on to load the bases and Llia Conway singled, scoring Bettney. Then Taylor stepped in and struck the biggest blow, a double to right center that cleared the bases.
“That was a really big hit. It was exciting,” said Taylor. “It was right there, and I knew I had to hit it. I wasn’t expecting that. We had a break-out inning.”
Kelly Johnson’s double and Alyssa Dunn’s single each brought home one more run, putting the hosts up by seven.
Gagnon, who said that her hand “was numb for a little while, but it was fine after that,” settled down right away and retired seven of the last eight.
“We’ve been playing well for a while,” the right-handed hurler said, “so it was our turn to have a bad inning.”
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