Legendary Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi once told his players to chase perfection, knowing it was unattainable but that, in the process, they would catch excellence.

Lombardi’s Packers might never have caught perfection, but in the spring of 2002, Sarah Bennis did, at least for a fleeting moment.

Bennis, Greely’s tall, powerful and for much of the year, unhittable ace pitcher, caught fire, toyed with hitters and enjoyed a season for the ages.

A season that ended with a championship and one that has withstood the test of the time.

A season that might well have been the best ever produced by a high school softball pitcher in the state of Maine.

And a season that earned Bennis a mention in Sports Illustrated, the nation’s premier sports magazine.

“It was a really awesome time,” said Bennis, now Sarah Jamo. “I couldn’t comprehend it then, but it was pretty life-changing for me. I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing, but that season changed my trajectory.”

Humble beginnings

Bennis grew up in Pownal and didn’t even begin pitching until the eighth grade.

She played both basketball and softball for Greely and, in the spring of her freshman year, joined new coach Jim Seavey on a team that had gone 6-10 the year before and missed the playoffs.

Bennis, her coach and her teammates would come of age together and steadily improve.

“I had two freshmen pitchers, Sarah and Nikki Fillion,” Seavey said. “They shared time, then Sarah took over junior year.”

The Rangers won 13 games in 1999 and 10 in 2000 and lost to Maranacook in the playoffs both seasons.

In 2001, with Bennis now Greely’s ace, the Rangers won 15 games, but dropped a gut-wrenching 1-0 decision to Gray-New Gloucester in the regional final.

“Each year, the program improved,” Bennis said. “Greely is a very strong athletic school, but softball hadn’t been a part of that. We needed a growing period to make the run we did. Coach Seavey and I had the same journey and (assistant coach) Rob Hale had come on board. All the pieces had fallen into place.”

Heading into 2002, Greely had high hopes. The Rangers featured the likes of Fillion, Jen Blumenthal, Emily Davis, Erica Gagne, Ashley Germond, Bri Googins, Steph Ginn, Autumn Hawkes and Marnie Sicard, most of whom excelled at multiple sports.

Bennis, meanwhile, was considered one of the state’s top players, but she would raise the bar to stratospheric levels.

“I knew (Sarah) was good and that we’d be really good,” Seavey said. “We had a bad taste from the year before.”

Bennis hinted at transcendence to come when she no-hit Poland in the regular season opener, striking out nine.

Bennis enjoyed a series of solid performances as the spring progressed, holding potent Scarborough to two hits, one-hitting Falmouth while driving in three runs herself, throwing a one-hitter against Wells and fanning 12 against Marshwood.

While Bennis excelled, she credited her teammates, especially Ginn, her sophomore catcher, for playing a huge role in her success.

“Steph was great,” Bennis said. “I had a natural drop to my pitches and would throw it as hard as I could and I had confidence in her to stop the ball.”

Perfection

The Rangers lost just twice, to Cape Elizabeth in the eighth game of the season (Bennis didn’t pitch) and at Falmouth on May 20, a 3-2 setback where Bennis took her only loss of the season.

To say that result made her angry would be an understatement and what resulted was unthinkable.

The following day, Greely handled visiting Yarmouth, 12-0 (in five innings), as Bennis faced 15 batters and retired them all.

If the first perfect game was impressive, her second was even more so, as on May 22, the Rangers and visiting Scarborough, a powerhouse then, like now, played scoreless ball through seven innings, then an eighth, before Greely finally pushed a run across in the ninth to prevail.

Bennis was perfect again, retiring all 27 hitters who stepped into the batter’s box.

“Falmouth was a wakeup call, but Scarborough was the game that stands out the most,” Bennis said. “That was really the turning point. We knew if we could play with Scarborough, we could do it.”

Two days later, in the regular season finale, the Rangers avenged an earlier loss by pounding visiting Cape Elizabeth, 13-0 (in five innings).

Again, Bennis was perfect.

For the third straight game.

“It was just unbelievable,” Seavey said. “Her performance was once in a coaching career, if that. She was just gritty. Wouldn’t get beat.

“Sarah didn’t throw a lot of different pitches back then, but she was so good at locating the ball and spotting pitches. I used to tell her, ‘Peas at the knees.’ Low strikes are the hardest ones to hit and when you get ahead and throw a high pitch, it looks like a beach ball and the batter can’t lay off.”

Greely, the top seed in Western Class B, then had a week-and-a-half off before the start of the playoffs and the attention, and the pressure, mounted.

“I was getting more noticed,” Bennis said. “After the third (perfect game) it had become a really big thing.”

“Sarah carried that team,” said Mike Lowe, the longtime, recently retired sportswriter for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, who covered many of Bennis’ games in 2002. “She was so far advanced as a high school pitcher. She knew how to set up batters and that set her apart. Physically, she dominated, but she had the edge mentally too. She knew how to find weaknesses in the hitters.”

When Bennis, who had retired the last 59 batters she faced in the regular season, gave up a first inning single in the Rangers’ divisional quarterfinal round contest versus Wells, she wasn’t disappointed.

Just the opposite.

“It was a relief to give up that hit,” Bennis said. “I knew it was unrealistic to be perfect the rest of the season.”

“People don’t understand that to throw a perfect game, ability, skill and luck all play a role,” Seavey said. “Once she threw one perfect game, I thought there was no way she could throw a second, then there was no way she could throw a third. When she finally gave up a hit, you could see her relax. She could finally just breathe out there.”

Bennis never gave up a second hit that day, as she struck out 12 in a 1-0 victory, a score that would become a running theme in the postseason.

Next up was a shot at avenging the previous year’s playoff heartbreak, when Greely hosted Gray-New Gloucester in the divisional semifinals, and something about facing the Patriots brought out the best in Bennis, as she returned to her perfect ways, not allowing a baserunner while striking out 10 of the 21 batters she faced in another 1-0 victory.

“Greely and Gray-New Gloucester were big rivals in both basketball and softball,” Bennis said. “I didn’t feel too much pressure to be perfect. While I was successful at pitching, we still needed the defense to make outs and we needed to score runs. We were doing something right.”

The regional semifinal was next and Oak Hill paid a visit. Again, the Rangers won, 1-0, again Bennis stole the show, this time throwing a no-hitter (she did, gasp, walk one batter) and struck out seven.

That sent Greely back to St. Joseph’s College in Standish for the regional final, the site of the previous season’s heartache. This time, Maranacook was the foe.

The game was scoreless into the bottom of the sixth, when Bennis drove in the game’s lone run with an RBI ground out. She slammed the door in the seventh and while she was somewhat mortal (three hits allowed, 11 Ks), the Rangers had won the program’s first hardware of any kind.

“We had played Maranacook in previous years and knew that they had very good athletes and a good pitcher,” Bennis said. “We were excited to beat them to go to states, but we weren’t satisfied with just winning a regional title. We had to win it all.”

Greely was supposed to turn around and play Erskine Academy in the state final the following day in Brewer, but for the third time that postseason, rain forced a postponement, moving the game from June 15 to June 17, a reprieve that Bennis and her teammates embraced.

“I liked having the weather delay,” Bennis said. “We had graduated, there was no school, so it was just bonus time with the team.”

On June 17, the skies cleared and the Rangers made the two-hour trip north to face a team that had an exceptional pitcher of its own, Katie Mainville, who was bound for the University of Southern Maine.

It was essentially a given that the score would be 1-0. The only question was which team would win and how many innings would be necessary.

Neither Bennis or Mainville disappointed and while the crowd was smaller than it would have been had the game been played on a weekend, those in attendance witnessed a fitting final chapter to Bennis’ season to remember.

Bennis took a no-hitter into the fifth, but Greely could do nothing with Mainville, who actually had more strikeouts on the day. Each team had chances in the later innings, but the game remained 0-0 through seven innings, through eight, and eventually, through nine.

Then, in the top of the 10th, Mainville blinked and the Rangers broke through.

With Bennis providing an assist.

After freshman Michelle Robb (a great pitcher in her own right, who would step into Bennis’ role the following season) drew a walk, Bennis sacrificed her to second. That then set the stage for Ginn, Bennis’ battery-mate, to etch her name in program lore.

Ginn got a hold of a Mainville offering and ripped it down the leftfield line for a double, scoring Robb, giving Bennis the only run she would need.

“I had a strong belief we’d score a run and figure it out,” Bennis said. “Steph’s hit was so awesome. I just tried to stay composed because I knew I had to go back out there.”

“I can still picture Steph coming through in the clutch and hitting that ball down the line,” Seavey said.

Surprisingly, Bennis didn’t register a strikeout in the bottom of the 10th, but she did induce three grounders back to the mound and Greely had a 1-0 victory and the Class B state championship.

“It was really exciting to be part of,” Bennis said. “We had a big celebration. We were the first. There were definitely some nerves, but I enjoyed those moments. As a pitcher, you have to embrace every pitch. You need confidence because you have to beat the batter three times while they only have to beat you once. I wanted to match (Katie) pitch for pitch and thrived in that situation. In that game, every at-bat mattered. I just remember wanting to throw strikes. I wouldn’t let myself be beaten and I knew walks could kill you. I attacked every batter. I just had that mindset on the field.”

“The last three outs were grounders back to Sarah and throws over to Nikki (at first) and that couldn’t have been more fitting since they started as freshmen with me,” Seavey said. “It was so exciting for the community and the kids. That whole group was super competitive. So fun to coach. We had a solid club with some very good players. Sarah had her share of strikeouts, but we also made our share of plays. We did the little things. Every day in practice was as competitive as the games. It was a special group. Great camaraderie. I don’t remember an ounce of drama that season.”

Bennis’ final numbers were otherworldly.

For the season, she went 18-1 with 16 shutouts, four perfect games, two no-hitters and two one-hitters. She had a minuscule earned run average of 0.22 and in 128 innings, walked only eight and struck out 148. Bennis allowed just six hits in in five high-pressure postseason games and finished with a program record of 49 wins and 365 strikeouts.

Following the season, Bennis went national, appearing in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” in the June 24 issue.

“Sarah was one of a kind, no question,” said Seavey. “She was just a quiet, unassuming kid from Pownal. A great kid. She played on big stages. She was a gifted athlete. Tall and lanky with long arms and as a pitcher, arm whip and leg drive are most important.”

Continued success

Even after the state game, Bennis wasn’t sure where she would play in college, as for a time, she clung to the desire to play basketball and softball at the next level.

But her sensational season-long performance, especially the postseason run, convinced the University of Maine to come calling and Bennis decided to go to Orono.

“I had a tough college decision,” Bennis said. “In my mind, I wasn’t quite ready to give up basketball, but I knew I could compete (in softball) at the Division I level and do it for my home state. I think that playoff run got me noticed. When I was at Maine, the other pitchers were from California and Utah, but I knew I deserved to be there. My high school career taught me to fight. I was a power pitcher and I had to learn how to pitch a little bit in college.”

Bennis developed into a star again in college and along the way met Ben Jamo, who eventually became her husband.

Bennis spent time as an assistant coach at Merrimack College, then, after the birth of her son, Cooper, decided to come home to Pownal.

She coached her alma mater in 2012 and not surprisingly, led Greely to a terrific season, once which ended at 16-3, after a loss to Fryeburg Academy in the regional final at St. Joe’s.

Bennis, who had spent part the 2012 season helping out with the University of Southern Maine program, then was offered the head coaching job and she hasn’t left, turning the Huskies into a perennial contender.

“Coaching at USM is a dream come true,” Bennis said. “It’s been amazing. It’s a perfect fit for me. I never thought I could make a career out of coaching softball, but I have.”

While her past and present are well documented, you might want to salt something away for the future.

Bennis has an 8-year-old daughter named Brynn. She plays softball and has just started to pitch.

Perhaps sometime around the end of the decade, Brynn Jamo will become a star in her right.

Perhaps someday, another pitcher somewhere will throw three consecutive perfect games, dominate a season from start to finish and lead her team to an elusive championship.

Perhaps.

But there will never be another Sarah Bennis and you’ll never again see the type of brilliance she authored in the spring of 2002.

“That year and that team are absolutely still part of my identity,” Bennis said. “No matter what, we’re always connected. We’ll always be teammates and sisters. I try to instill that in my players now.”

“Her career speaks for itself as a player and a coach,” Seavey said. “(Sarah) had no margin for error, but she rose to the occasion. She had that special ‘it factor.'”

“(Sarah Bennis) was the reason (Greely) won,” Lowe added. “Without question, she was the number one star. She never thought of herself as anything special. She just went out and did her thing and pitched.”

Like no one else.

Before or since.

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports. 

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