Scarborough starting pitcher Lilly Volk gave up one hit – one lousy hit – against Messalonskee in Saturday afternoon’s Class A Softball Championship at Cony HighSchoo l in Augusta…but the Eagles bled that hit for all it was worth.

Kristen Prelgovisk made the fateful contact, and boy did she make contact:

Prelgovisk sent that ball deep, deep and gone, a solo homer that ultimately proved the game’s lone, and thus its winning, run. It happened in the very first inning.

So East reps Messalonskee took the title, dashed Scarborough’s hopes for a perfect – they’d previously been undefeated – season, and broke the Red Storm’s interesting streak of winning the State crown in odd-numbered years. Scarborough won in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, but in each of the intervening, even-number years, reached at best the A West Final. In 2014, they lost that game to TA, whom they rematched with, and defeated, this season.

“This is a great game, and we just want to reflect on all the positive things we did this year,” said Scarborough head coach Tom Griffin. “Unfortunately, one hit, what can you do? We played our hearts out. Either team deserved to win.”

“Both teams played a really good game,” said senior and tri-Captain Sophia Burnham.

“It’s just that, in softball, one hit can change the whole game.

“I don’t think we were fully prepared,” Burnham added, a little tentatively. “I trust our team; it was a tough game…[Pelletier] is a great pitcher.”

For their part, the Red Storm put up two hits against the Eagles, a single by Maggie Murphy in the first, and one by Burnham in the second. They also walked onto base, once in the third and twice in the fifth, but couldn’t convert any of those opportunities into runs of their own.

Obviously, then, we’re looking at something of a defensive battle. We’re also looking at something of a pitching battle. Volk struck out nine, and gave up zero walks; meanwhile, Eagles starter Kirsten Pelletier, besides throwing three walks, also K-ed 11 Stormers.

“I told them, this is old-time softball, where the pitching mound was at 40 feet and pitchers dominated,” said Griffin. “It’s what you get, when you’ve got two quality pitchers. [Pelletier] did a tremendous job; that’s the best pitcher we saw all year.

“That was one of our fears going into this. We didn’t see the quality of pitching in our league this year. We have some really good pitchers in our league, but not that type of quality.

“I thought we could make some adjustments, and we just couldn’t do it. We tried to keep our hands a little bit higher, tried to stay off that high pitch and try to keep our hands up, try to get on top of that ball, make her throw that changeup for strikes. Just little things.”

It’s maybe a bitter end to another spectacular season for Scarborough, but they bore the defeat with composure and maturity.

“Obviously, we’re proud of our team, and our coaches are proud of us for getting where we are,” said senior tri-Captain Ashley Gleason. “We still feel accomplished for what we did. But it was a good game, two good teams. I don’t know; they got the upper-hand quickly, and that’s just how it went.

“It kind of stinks that it was just one hit, but that’s the game; it’s softball. It could’ve gone either way. They played a really good game. They deserved it.”

“It definitely sucks that we didn’t get it this year,” said senior (and last of the tri-Captains) Brittany Plowman. “We have a championship, but getting this one – it’s a whole different team. I love these guys, it would be awesome to have it with them.

“We’re not just a team, we’re basically a family. So it would’ve been great to have it with them, too.”

Scarborough retires until 2016 at 19-1. Messalonskee goes home on top at 17-3.

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Chloe Griffin takes a cut at the ball in Scarborough’s narrow loss to Messalonskee on Saturday afternoon.Even in defeat, Scarborough senior tri-Captain Ashley Gleason found a smile for the camera.

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