CA girls shut down by Dragons
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
MARS HILL — Woodland’s Whitney Bassett held a potent Central Aroostook offense to just four hits Thursday, sending the Panthers to a 6-3 home loss in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Maine Class D softball playoffs.
Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg
SHERATIN KELLY of the Central Aroostook Panthers throws the ball to first from her third base position during Thursday’s 6-3 quarterfinal loss to Woodland played in Mars Hill.
“We knew we needed to focus and keep our heads in the game,” said Bassett, whose No. 11-ranked Dragons had beaten Ashland, 11-8, in another road upset in the preliminary round two days earlier.
During the middle innings, she retired 10 of the 12 batters she faced, allowing only one hit, in a stretch that began midway through the second inning and carried through the fifth.
“My catcher just positioned herself inside and outside and I hit the spots,” said Bassett, who struck out two batters and walked two in the complete-game perfomance.
CA coach Ryan Guerrette admitted the Bassett was probably “the fastest pitcher we’ve seen all year,” but said it was a couple letdowns on defense that ultimately made the difference.
The Dragons broke a 1-1 tie by scoring four times in the top of the third inning. The final two runs were unearned as CA infielders made back-to-back errors with two outs.
“Basically, we just had the one bad inning,” Guerrette said. “We weren’t sound defensively and in a close game, you can’t afford to make mistakes in the field.”
The Panthers also had three baserunners thrown out on the basepaths. The first was on a perfect relay to home plate by Woodland that cut down Page Fletcher and turned into the first out of the second inning, while the second came an inning later when leadoff hitter Paige Garrison tried unsuccessfully to stretch a single into a double.
The third came in the fifth inning when Mollie Garrison was tagged out attempting to advance from second to third on an infield groundout.
“It was just mostly just our kids being aggressive and they made a couple plays against us,” Guerrette said. “That’s the way we play and we’re not going to change that.”
Central Aroostook trailed by four entering the bottom of the sixth and cut the lead in half as Garrison led off with a walk and Michaela King tripled her home. King later came across on an infield error.
Woodland tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh and the Panthers were kept off the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame.
Carly Grass took the loss on the mound and Kayla Cushman led the CA offense by collecting two of her team’s four hits.
Despite the loss, Guerrette was pleased with the season, which included a nine-game winning streak in the late going which helped give the Panthers a preliminary round bye and home field advantage for its quarterfinal game. The squad finished 12-5 overall.
“I thought we exceeded expectations,” he said. “The older kids led by example and the younger ones came along well.”
