Sports Reporters
DEER ISLE – After an impressive hitting display in the quarterfinals, the hits were harder to come by for the Limestone-MSSM softball team in its Eastern Class D semifinal game against Deer Isle-Stonington Friday.
Eagle third baseman Amanda Allen throws the ball across the diamond for an out during the second inning of last Wednesday’s playoff game against Ashland. Limestone-MSSM won, 18-6.
No. 2 Deer Isle-Stonington (16-2) out hit Limestone-MSSM 19-4 en route to a 10-1 victory over the No. 3 Eagles (12-4)
“The Deer Isle game was a tough one,” Eagles coach Ryan O’Neal said. “The most impressive thing about them was how balanced they were. Throughout the year, all I heard about was how tough this [Sydney] Ouzts girl was. They are much more than just a pitcher. They made all the routine plays as well as a few extraordinary ones.”
The Eagles put the ball in play, but each time the Mariners’ defense was up to the challenge.
Ouzts tossed the complete game for the Mariners, striking out eight and walking none. She had a shutout through the first six innings before Victoria St. Pierre blasted a solo home run for Limestone-MSSM.
Chelsea Leighton had two singles for Limestone-MSSM.
Britnie Jones had a home run, triple and single with three RBIs to lead the Mariners. Chelsea Brown added a double and two singles, while Hannah Siebert and Goldie Garcia each had two singles.
“They have a consistent line-up,” O’Neal said. “Each batter reached at least once via a hit. They knew what pitch they wanted to hit, and they didn’t mistake pitches. The number six through nine hitters went 10-for-16. This is almost the same lineup we saw last year in the quarterfinals that we held to four hits. We were lucky to hold them to 10.”
The Mariners scored three unearned runs due to Limestone-MSSM miscues.
“In a game like this zero unearned runs was the only way we were going to have a chance,” O’Neal said. “We did manage four hits against them including Victoria’s homerun. We actually strung together three hits that inning. Unfortunately, it was too little, much too late.”
The Eagles graduate four seniors, including three starters — catcher Victoria St. Pierre, pitcher Jasmine Cote and right fielder Rylee Leighton.
Quarterfinal contest
The Ashland and Limestone-MSSM softball squads had varying results in their two regular-season meetings.
The Eagles earned a lopsided 30-6 win in both squads’ regular-season opener on April 23, but at Limestone on May 12, pitching and defense were on display by both sides in a 1-0 Eagle victory.
In round three June 9, in an Eastern Maine Class D quarterfinal, Limestone-MSSM’s offense rallied for plenty of runs once again and the result was an 18-6 victory over No. 6 Ashland (8-8) in a game called after five innings due to the mercy rule.
“The first time we saw Ashland, Donovan was wild, and the last time, she was on,” said Eagle coach O’Neal.
Pitching wildness, especially early on, was a problem for the Hornets. Whitney Donovan allowed two walks and hit two batters with pitches as part of Limestone-MSSM’s four-run first-inning rally, and then walked six more batters when six runs came across in the second inning. She finished the game by allowing 17 Limestone-MSSM batters to reach via either a walk or a hit by pitch in her four-plus innings of work.
Victoria St. Pierre had a two-run double and Amanda Allen an RBI single in the first, while Ashlynn Kelly chipped in with an RBI single, Chelsea Leighton a two-run single and Savannah Gray an RBI single during the second-inning outburst.
“We took advantage of many free baserunners,” O’Neal said. “We only had eight hits, but most of those drove in a run.
“Ashlynn and Chelsea were catalysts for us. Ashlynn carried us early in the season and it was nice to see her step up in this game and Chelsea has been heating up for us.”
Ashland was able to mount two-run rallies in both the second and third innings. Brooke LaBelle’s bases-loaded double off the left-field fence was the key hit in the second, while the Hornets also got to Limestone-MSSM starting pitcher Jasmine Cote in the third with four hits, including a double to right-center field by Taylor Baker which drove in a run.
Still, it was, too much, Limestone-MSSM as they secured the victory by scoring five more times in the bottom of the third and tallying three in the bottom of the fifth to close things out.
Leighton added a double later in the game and totaled three RBIs. Kelly scored four runs and had two hits and two RBIs.
Both Ashland’s Donovan and Limestone-MSSM’s Cote surrendered eight hits in the game, but Cote had the advantage by only allowing one base on balls during her stint.
“We played pretty good defense, and that had been our Achilles heel in each of our three losses,” O’Neal added.
