Softball
Biddeford 2
South Portland 1
After the first three games of the regular season, the Biddeford softball team was below .500 with a 1-2 record. The Tigers had suffered one-run losses to both South Portland and Scarborough, two of the favorites in Western Class A.
Turning things around was just a matter of confidence, though, according to coach Leon Paquin.
“We said, if our (freshmen) develop and get confident they won’t be freshmen anymore by the time we play (in the Western Maine Finals),” he said.
So, the Tigers bided their time and steadily improved. They lost just once more during the regular season – to Bonny Eagle – and locked up the No. 4 seed for the tournament.
The Tigers would have to suffer through one more loss – to the Red Storm – in the SMAA tournament, but eventually they’d get another shot a both No. 1 Scarborough and No. 2 South Portland.
Biddeford beat Scarborough, 2-1, in 11 innings Monday (see accompanying story), then turned around and beat South Portland, 2-1, Tuesday.
Senior Michelle Gagnon pitched both games for the Tigers. She bested Scarborough’s Kelsey Griffin with a 141-pitch effort Monday, and on Tuesday she topped South Portland lefty Julie DiMatteo.
“Michelle was so composed. In practice she throws 200 pitches a day so she can throw back to back games and not miss a beat,” said Paquin. “She throws 200 pitches a day all year.
“We know she has to pitch every game, but she’s such a joy to work with. She’s not afraid to work. She’ll do it, she’ll throw her 200 pitches and that’s it. She stays after practice when everybody else goes home.”
Gagnon, who said she started feeling her best at the end of the South Portland game, doesn’t do anything fancy. Admittedly, she doesn’t throw hard, but she does find the spots and keeps the opposing batters guessing.
“It looked like we should crush her, but it was slow with a lot of movement on it. I think, at first you’ve got to get over the slowness, then that break was just killing us,” said South Portland coach Jim Hartman. “I don’t know where the break was coming from. In the first couple innings we were right out on that front foot and we just didn’t make the adjustments, getting up in the box.”
The Biddeford offense, on the other hand, did get going early. The Tigers scored their only two runs off DiMatteo (seven innings, four hits, six strikeouts) in the top of the first.
Emily Rousseau led off the game with a walk. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Justine McCurry, then advanced to third on an infield single by Aimee Mortensen. Hartman intentionally walked cleanup hitter Jen Dutremble – who he saw homer against Scarborough – to set up a force at any base.
The gamble paid off when the next batter, Gagnon, grounded to third. Jackie Rice went home for the second out of the inning, but catcher Jamie Harmon went for the double play at first. Her throw sailed over the head of first baseman Libby King, and Mortensen and Dutremble came around to score.
“I knew (the early runs) would be big because, in games like this, you don’t get a lot of runs,” said Gagnon. “So I knew as long as we played defense and kept it up we’d be fine.”
The Tigers did keep it up.
South Portland got one run back in the bottom of the second inning when Kelsey Flaherty doubled in DiMatteo (single), but that was it.
“(Gagnon) finds her targets,” said South Portland senior right fielder Kristin Kill. “She’s a good pitcher. She knows what she’s doing out there. She threw it inside-outside, moved it around and did a really good job.”
Both pitchers did. Gagnon gave up just one more hit after the second, and DiMatteo allowed just two more base runners.
But the damage was already done, and, unlike the first game of the season when the Red Riots rallied to beat the Tigers with two runs in the bottom of the seventh, there would be no comeback.
“I know we’ve come back so many times in the last two years,” said Hartman. “This is a 35-7 team (over the last two seasons). They’ve played some ballgames and we’ve come back a lot. It didn’t phase them, but the bats weren’t there. There’s just some days like that and there’s nothing you can do about that.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
