NEWPORT, Maine — The Gardiner High School softball team spent practice time devoted to making catches against the fence and it came in handy Friday afternoon.
Freshman center fielder Logan Granholm robbed Nokomis High School of Newport’s Mikayla Charters of an extra-base hit or a potential game-tying homer at the fence in the sixth inning as the undefeated Tigers withstood a furious rally to post an 11-7 win.
Gardiner improved to 12-0 while Nokomis fell to 8-4.
Nokomis had rallied from a 9-1 deficit to within 9-6 and Charters had runners on second and third when she belted her long wind-aided drive to the center field fence.
Granholm reached up head-high to make the catch against the fence.
It went as a sacrifice fly.
Charters thought the ball was going to carry out of the park when she hit it.
“The wind took it a little. Oh, well, it got a run in,” she said.
“I was just trying to get under it,” Granholm said. “I had no clue where I was. I just stuck my glove out and I caught it. I was hoping [I was going to catch it]. We had been practicing that.”
“That was a good catch. I thought it was a homer,” Gardiner coach Don Brochu said. “That was one of our drills. We had been telling our girls not to be afraid to steal one over the fence.”
“I had faith in Logan,” winning pitcher Kristal Smith said. “She caught it just like she did in practice. Flawless.”
Bri Brochu, Don’s daughter, doubled to jumpstart a seventh-inning rally that produced two insurance runs for Smith.
Brochu pulled a pitch by lefty Libby Dunivan just inside the right field foul line.
She went to third on a wild pitch and scored on an infield error. Another infield error and Lauren Boyington’s RBI single capped the rally.
“It’s my job as the lead-off hitter to get on base. I knew the team would move me around,” Brochu said.
The Tigers punched out 14 hits and everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. They also ran the bases very aggressively, stealing seven bases, including a couple of them coming on throws from the catcher back to the pitcher.
“We work on those in practice. It’s always nice to catch a team off guard,” Gardiner senior catcher Morgan Carver said.
Carver’s RBI single and Lilly Chepke’s two-run single sparked a three-run second inning that staked Gardiner to a 3-0 lead.
Nokomis got one back in the bottom of the second on Kamryn Foss’ triple and Shannon Kasprzak’s RBI grounder but Gardiner added four in the third on six stolen bases, including two steals of home, a walk, a hit batsman, Carver’s RBI triple and Brochu’s run-scoring single.
Boyington singled home a fourth-inning run and Lauren Chadwick singled in a fifth-inning run before Nokomis scored four unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth on a dropped fly ball and RBI singles by Charters, Leighton and Kasprzak.
Nokomis added two in the sixth on a hit batsman, an infield error, Dunivan’s RBI single and Charters’ sacrifice fly.
Nokomis had been no-hit in its last two meetings with Gardiner but reached the hard-throwing Smith for seven hits Friday.
“They definitely battled back. This was good for us looking toward the tournament,” said Carver, whose Tigers have won nine games by six or more runs.
“We had nothing to lose. We fought back,” Charters said. “We’ve practiced hitting on the pitching machine at her [Smith’s speed] so we were ready for her.”
Brochu had two doubles and a single for Gardiner. Carver tripled and singled and Boyington and Julia Nadeau had two singles apiece.
Sydney Hanson had two singles for Nokomis and Foss tripled.