GORHAM — There was no heartbreak this time for the Windham High softball team.
Brooke Gerry threw a two-hitter while striking out 13, Jaydn Kimball added a two-run home run, and the second-seeded Eagles defeated No. 1 and defending champion Biddeford, 5-0, in the Class A South final, avenging two straight regional tournament losses to their rival.
The Tigers (17-2) outlasted the Eagles (17-2) in 14 innings in the semis in 2021, and then beat them in the regional final last year en route to a state title. This time, Windham broke through to reach its first state final since winning Class B in 1995.
“There are so many emotions going through my head. I’m excited, I want to cry, I don’t know,” said Gerry, who also went 2 for 4 with a double and two RBI. “That was definitely the biggest thing we had in mind, beat Biddo. We knew we were going to face them one way or another.”
The Eagles finally had a playoff answer for Biddeford ace Charlotte Donovan, collecting 13 hits off the senior, with two each coming from Addie Caiazzo, Stella Jarvais, Oakley McLeod and Chloe Edwards. Donovan fanned eight.
“Brooke pitched a hell of a game today. Her ball moved in and out, she made us work at bat,” said Tigers Coach Mike Fecteau, whose team’s only hits were a double from Hannah Lappin and a single from Baylor Wilkinson. “Two hits, you’re not going to win.”
Windham jumped in front in the third inning. Edwards reached on a bunt single and scored when Gerry’s fly into the left-field gap fell for a double. Two batters later, Jarvais rapped a single up the middle, scoring Gerry.
“I told myself ‘Just see it and hit it. Play it simple and don’t overdo it,'” Jarvais said. “I think that’s what our team executed today. I think we didn’t overthink any pitch.”
Windham doubled its lead in the fifth. Caiazzo doubled with one out, and Kimball – who missed the regular season recovering from hip surgery – hammered a pitch over the left-field wall.
“I think I cried before she even got to third base,” Coach Darcey Gardiner said. “She had two at-bats where she wasn’t feeling super good about herself. … She saw her pitch and let it rip.”
Kimball said getting back to this game – and winning it – was a season-long mission.
“There’s a combined mentality on the team to win states,” Kimball said. “Our goal we work toward every day is to win states.”
Biddeford experienced that feeling last year, and despite key graduation losses put itself in position to make a third straight final by winning 16 straight games following a 12-4 loss to Windham in April.
“I’m very proud of my girls, (coming) from where we started,” Fecteau said. “It’s always tough when the end of the season is creeping up. … We battled. We lost to the better team today.”
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