HERMON — When Hermon softball players Alessa Oakes and Karli Theberge got out of their car for a Little League game a couple of seasons ago, a Bangor parent asked, “Which one of the twins is pitching today?”
Even though the girls aren’t related, they’ve become known as “the twins” to the Bangor area softball community ever since and it’s easy to understand how some may think they are sisters.
They pitch roughly the same speed; they both have blonde hair; they have similar stature and they even both play the flute in the school band.
But one characteristic sticks out among others for the righthanded Alessa and lefty Karli — they both go straight after batters and get ahead with a powering fastball and an arsenal of other pitches.
The “twins” have used their identical skills to put their team in title contention when the state Little League softball tourney for ages 11-12 opens Saturday in Westbrook. Hermon takes on Saco at 1 p.m.
In the three games leading up to their Hermon’s District 3 championship game against Bangor on June 29 — which they won 10-2 — the twins didn’t surrender a hit or a run, both using powerful fastballs to help lead their team in those victories.
When Oakes or Theberge is in the circle, Hermon has a tough time losing, period.
The aces have been dominating the circle for the past three years, leading Hermon to three District 3 titles — one 9-10, and two 11-12 crown — and a 9-10 state championship in 2009, when they combined to pitch six no-hitters in seven games.
A love and passion for pitching have been the catalyst for their success..
Alessa and Karli really began working on their pitching in Minor League when their fathers, Aaron Oakes and Jody Theberge, who are also their coaches, started taking them to pitching sessions with pitching coach Bob Phillips in Orrington on Sunday mornings.
“Obviously with pitching it takes a couple of years, but the first time we went down there you could see both girls loved the game. It was easy to get them to go,” Aaron Oakes said. “We’d be getting them up at 6, 7 o’clock to get them down there for an 8 o’clock practice, and they were 7 years old — it’s hard to get a 16-year-old to do that. They just loved to do it.”
Jody Theberge agrees the girls’ love for the game and their drive and work ethic have helped them excel.
“These girls have been willing all through the years to put in the hard work and it’s really paid off,” he said.
But, like many things, the part can’t be successful without the whole, and Oakes’ and Theberge’s teammates have been filling that void. Oakes, Theberge and catcher Sydney Addessi — who catches for both pitchers — serve as the team’s captains. They are what Jody Theberge calls the team’s “core.”
“It’s nice to have someone you can trust behind the plate and know that they have your back,” Karli Theberge said.
Alessa and Karli also credit the team’s sense of humor and looseness as a part of the engine that drives their success. There’s Hailey Perry, who is always putting a smile on someone’s face, and a whole cast of characters who follow suit.
Aaron Oakes and Jody Theberge have made staying loose and relaxed a point of emphasis in their team’s repertoire.
“We made the mistake of going into the state tournament a little tense last year, and that’s something we wanted to change this year,” Aaron Oakes said.
All believe that everyone will need to contribute for them to go far in the state tournament, and Hermon’s lineup has the perfect makeup to do so. They showed it in the District 3 championship game against pesky Bangor.
Hermon jumped out to a 6-0 lead through 3 1/2 innings, taking advantage of big opportunities at the plate and riding the pitching of Karli Theberge. But when Theberge and the Hermon defense got into some trouble in the bottom of the fourth — Theberge gave up her first hit of the tournament and the defense committed two errors — Hermon’s lineup answered with two runs in the top of the fifth, and four more insurance runs in the sixth.
“When you have teammates that pick you up when you’ve made a mistake or haven’t done so good, it makes it a lot easier to keep playing with confidence,” Alessa Oakes said. “It’s nice to have them there.”
Since the twins have similar skills, it was difficult to chose a starter for Saturday’s game.
“Aaron and I had to draw a line in the dirt and choose randomly who was pitching,” Jody Theberge said. “We couldn’t decide who would be better for game one.”
Alessa Oakes was chosen to start and it’s a safe bet Karli Theberge will follow her in the next game with an identical effort.