Monday was a special day for the defending Eastern Maine Class C softball champion Calais High School softball team.
It was their first outside practice of the season.
“In my 23 years, it’s the first time we’ve been on our field that late,” coach Greg Smith said. “We had all that snow and then once it cleared off, we got rain. It has been tough.
“It was nice to get outside,” Smith added.
“It was awful being in that gym [for so long],” senior pitcher Olivia Smith, Greg’s daughter, said.
“It has been bizarre,” senior catcher Maddy McVicar said.
The Blue Devils do have one win in their only game. But if they are going to repeat as regional titlists, they are going to have to receive production from seven new starters.
Seven seniors graduated off last year’s 19-1 team that lost to Madison 1-0 in the state final. Two other players transferred.
That leaves Smith and McVicar as the only returning starters.
But pitching can carry a team a long way in softball, and Smith is coming off a regular season in which she was 12-0 with an 0.29 earned run average. She struck out 136 and walked just 15 in 72 innings. She also hit .708 with five home runs, 10 doubles and 35 RBIs.
McVicar also had a productive season, both behind the plate and as a hitter and is an exceptional team leader, according to the Calais coach.
Even though it appears to be a rebuilding season, Calais has gone 45-3 over the past three seasons with three straight appearances in regional final. Bucksport beat the Blue Devils in 2012 and 2013 before topping the Bucks 4-2 in last year’s final.
“Coach Smith is a great coach. And if you watch us at the beginning of the season and then at the end of the season, we’re a whole different team. We always progress so much by the end of the season,” McVicar said.
McVicar said in every sport, they have players ready to step in and do the job, even if they suffer heavy graduation losses.
Olivia Smith wouldn’t make any predictions but pointed out “there is always a Cinderella team. And we’re going to try our hardest to get back there.”
Even though he will have a flock of first-year starters, Greg Smith said after watching his team play some games in the Mahaney Dome in Orono in early April, he was “really pleased with the way our young kids swung the bats. They weren’t intimidated.”
Calais does have several players who have seen some limited playing time and will be called upon to deliver in starting roles.
Junior Kyra Porter will be the first baseman, senior Cameron Parr will be at second and junior Anna Jean McClure will be the third baseman.
Freshman Faith Tirrell will start at shortstop.
“She’s a good athlete,” Greg Smith said.
Sophomore Katie Cavanaugh can play second and will be the No. 2 pitcher when she fully recovers from mononucleosis.
Smith is undecided about his starting outfield but has plenty of candidates, including sophomores Samantha Look, Halen Harris and Kiana Pike and freshmen Kylie Donovan, Payton Lozier, Kendra Parks and Emma Seelye.