Even after graduating six starters from last year’s state championship squad, the Cape Elizabeth High softball team commands respect from the rest of the Western Maine Conference.
The Capers took to the road Wednesday, defeating Gray-New Gloucester 8-0 behind a dominating performance from junior pitcher Tricia Thibodeau, who received plenty of early run support from her teammates.
Cape improved to 2-0, while the Patriots dropped to 0-2.
“They’re a very good team,” said Gray-New Gloucester coach Melanie Craig. “We have a lot of respect. And I think they’re very intimidating for some teams. I think they came out today and intimidated us just because they were Cape.”
Thibodeau, coming off a complete-game shutout in which she struck out 14 in the Capers’ season-opening win over Falmouth, showed excellent command, an assortment of pitches, and overpowering velocity as she struck out 10 and allowed only three hits in another complete-game effort.
The Cape hurler retired the first 13 batters she faced before Gray-New Gloucester’s Kassie Wilson singled to the right of second base with one out in the fifth, the first ball Cape allowed out of the infield. Thibodeau responded by striking out the next two batters to retire the side.
Cape coach Joe Henrikson had high praise for his pitcher’s work.
“She’s awesome,” he said. “She’s the real deal.”
Thibodeau benefited from a pair of Cape runs in the top of the first and five more in the second, putting the Capers soundly in control against a Patriots team that has failed to score a run through two games.
“I always love to have run support in the first inning,” Thibodeau said. “It helped so much. I think that was one of the reasons that I had such a good game. I do get nervous before games. I didn’t really pitch a lot over vacation, so to come back and throw a great game felt good.”
Colleen Martin, Thidodeau’s battery mate, put the Capers on the board when she knocked a triple to deep right field to plate Gabe Donahue, who led off the game with a single. Martin was erased at the plate when Emily Richardson’s bunt was fielded by Gray-New Gloucester starting pitcher Laura Getchell, who threw home for the out. Richardson came around to score two batters later on Delaney Rockwell’s RBI single.
Cape capitalized on three walks, an error and a wild pitch in the top of the second to score five, the fifth coming on Rockwell’s RBI double to make it 7-0.
Martin scored the eighth run for the Capers after leading off the fourth with her second triple of the game, this one an opposite-field shot to left.
Getchell, still wearing an air cast on her left ankle after a suffering an injury in the preseason and not cleared to bat or run, had 16 strikeouts and allowed only one hit in the Patriots’ 1-0 loss to Lake Region in the season opener. She also defeated Cape last year during the regular season as a freshman, but struggled in this outing.
“We were really just trying to stay off the high stuff and make her come into our power zone area,” Henrikson said. “Last year she beat us 2-0 and we were swinging at all the high stuff. We tried to make the adjustment to hit strikes. We weren’t going for (the high pitches) and she started brining it into the strike zone and we made good contact. That was the game plan going in.”
The plan worked from the get-go, and that was all Thibodeau needed. Even with a big early cushion that left room for a few mistakes, she hardly made any. She walked a batter in the sixth and the Patriots managed two hits in the seventh. Taylor Damon led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, but was picked off of first. Wilson got her second hit, a two-out double, before Thibodeau induced a pop-up to end the game.
“Thibodeau and Martin know how to work a batter,” Craig said. “They’re going to call pitches that find your weakness. They’re very good at that.”
Gray-New Gloucester cleanup hitter Abby Ryan, who finished 0-3, concurred
“She mixes it up all the time,” Ryan said. “She knows what you can’t hit.”
Rockwell finished 3-3 with a single, double, triple, walk and 2 RBIs for the Capers.
Alicia Valente worked two innings of scoreless relief for the Patriots.
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