Bonny Eagle takes advantage of Biddeford’s mistakes

BIDDEFORD — After going on a six-game winning streak, the Biddeford Tigers softball team suddenly finds itself in the middle of an untimely losing skid.

That skid hit three Friday afternoon after the Tigers lost to Bonny Eagle 9-5.

Since winning six in a row, the Tigers this week have also lost 18-1 to South Portland and 1-0 to Gorham.

In the South Portland and Bonny Eagle losses, defense hurt the Tigers as errors led to big innings.

“Sometimes that’s on the coaching,” Biddeford coach Leon Paquin said. “I’m trying to get them ready and I’m doing what I did with other teams, but right now it’s not working. I need to do a better job of getting them mentally prepared.”

On Friday, Bonny Eagle scored three runs in the top of the second inning. The first run came after Danielle Day bunted home Mariah Harrison. Biddeford proceeded to throw the ball around trying to get Jessica Sullivan out at third. Sullivan scored on an errant throw into the outfield for a 2-0 lead. The error allowed Harrison to move to third. She took advantage of that positioning when she scored on an infielder’s choice for a 3-0 lead.

“We have smart base runners,” Bonny Eagle coach Caterina Riitano said. “We made some heads up plays in that inning that gave us some momentum.

Paquin said it was mistakes like the throwing error that Biddeford needs to avoid as the playoffs begin soon.

“We can’t make those errors and give them extra outs,” he said. “You’re not going to win doing that.”

The Biddeford bats came to life in the bottom of the fifth.

Bri Laverriere and Mariah Albert drew back-to-back walks to put runners at first and second, and then Katelyn Lebreux doubled them home when she drove the ball to deep center field. That cut the lead to 3-2.

The Tigers had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth. Christina McCurry reached third base with two outs after getting hit by a pitch. A strikeout, however, ended the threat.

Bonny Eagle then took advantage erupted for six runs in the top of the seventh inning, taking a 9-3 lead. The inning started with a bunt single by Day that the Scots fed off.

“That was such a critical play,” Riitano said of Day’s bunt. “We drew off of that and were able to come up with some key hits to give us some insurance runs. I told the team before that inning that Biddeford wasn’t going away and that they needed to score some runs in that inning.”

Riitano was right. The Tigers didn’t go away in the bottom of the seventh inning, but most of their work came with two outs.

Albert ripped a one-out single to center field, after a popout by the next batter gave Biddeford two outs, Abbie Paquette reached on a walk before Heather Fecteau laced a single to center that plated Albert for a 9-3 score.

Alyssa Baldino drew a walk to load the bases and McCurry followed that with a laser shot down the third baseline that scored Dalani Roy and Fecteau, cutting the score to 9-5.

That was as much as Biddeford could get, however, as the Tigers ended the regular season with the loss.

“I would’ve been upset if they had given up,” Paquin said. “They didn’t do that and they showed a lot of heart. We’re in the playoffs and if we can just tighten up our defense there will be a lot of teams who won’t want to play us. We can learn from this. There is still softball to be played.”

It was a big win for the Scots who were in the 10th spot in the heal points entering the game. The top 11 teams make it. This should solidify a spot for the Scots and move them up a few places.

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