LINCOLN, Maine — It was maybe an hour before she was going to throw her first pitch, but Tayla Trask already had her game face on.
“I’m so pumped [for this game],” the Mattanawcook Academy sophomore righthander said while warming up to face Old Town in a battle of Class B softball unbeatens.
Trask, pitching for the second time in less than 24 hours after firing a perfect game against John Bapst of Bangor on Monday, scattered two unearned runs on three hits Tuesday while striking out 12 and walking none as the Lynx improved to 6-0 with a 7-2 triumph.
Trask found herself behind early, as Old Town parlayed an error and a pair of singles into a first-inning run.
But she bore down after that, retiring the final two batters of the first via the strikeout en route to setting down 14 in a row.
“We got off to a rocky start, but I knew we’d settle in and get the nerves out and we’d be all set,” said Trask, who threw 67 of her 82 pitches for strikes (71 percent).
The Lynx, who entered the week ranked first in the spring’s first Heal point ranks, got a couple of runs back in the second thanks to singles by Jessica Fortin and Brooke Hanscom, the latter of which brought in Fortin.
Vinni Nesin, who had reached on a fielder’s choice after Fortin’s single, scored on an error to give Mattanawcook the lead for good.
Coach Dean Libbey’s balanced offense scratched across single runs in the third and fourth before sealing the win with a three-run uprising in the sixth.
“I still haven’t had a found a batting lineup yet, to be honest with you,” said Libbey, who had six different players score at least one run while all nine starters reached base at least once.
“We’ve had different people in every game step up,” Libbey added.
Trask aided her own cause with a sixth-inning RBI single while Fortin ripped a run-scoring single down the left-field line in the third.
Freshman Sierra Pierce reached base all four times up with a walk, single and reaching on two errors while scoring two runs.
“As evidenced by her being on base all four times, she’s a pretty good person in the batter’s box for us,” said Libbey.
Trask, who features an overpowering fastball, stuck with her breaking pitches — mainly a changeup, riseball and dropball — to keep the free-swinging Coyotes honest.
“I knew I had to go away from my fastball and throw my movement pitches. I knew the changeup would be huge in this game,” said Trask.
Catchers Amanda Gulesian and Brandi Pierce made sure Trask had excellent location, and she painted the corners well with her fastball.
“The game plan was just to expand the strike zone. We were aware that they would swing and they were aggressive hitters so we were trying to get them to swing at pitches that were wider than the strike zone, so to speak,” said Libbey.
Fortin and Hanscom were the Lynx’s lone repeat hitters with two singles apiece.
Amy Singer drove in the first run of the game for 4-1 Old Town with a bunt single, while Sarah Wilcox singled and drove in a run with a groundout in the sixth. Hilary Campbell added a seventh-inning single.
