CORINTH, Maine — The Central High School Red Devil softball team appeared to be en route to a third 12-run rule victory over Orono when they put nine first-inning runs on the board in their Eastern Maine Class C preliminary game Tuesday.
The youthful Red Riots stunned Central with seven second-inning runs, but senior left fielder Cheyenne Edgerly’s clutch two-out, two-run single in the third capped an important three-run rally and the seventh-seeded Red Devils went on to post a 16-8 triumph.
Seventh seed Central improved to 9-8 and will travel to take on second seed Bucksport, 15-1, in a Thursday quarterfinal.
Bucksport won a pair of tight ones during the regular season, 5-4 and 4-2.
Tenth seed Orono finished up at 5-12 including 16-1 and 15-3 losses to Central during the regular season.
“We definitely needed to score more runs. You always need to score more runs, no matter what,” said Edgerly, who pulled her base hit into right center after an Emma Campbell single, an infield error, a hit batsman and Aly Crocker’s sacrifice fly produced the first run of the inning.
A walk to Emily Oko loaded the bases before Edgerly delivered to make it 12-7.
“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit,” Edgerly said.
The Red Devils added four insurance runs in the fifth as Edgerly blooped an RBI single to left, Sidney Potvin hit a sacrifice fly and Tiffany Smith belted a run-scoring double before an infield error produced the fourth run.
Central senior righthander Konnar Kirlin bounced back nicely after Orono’s seven-run second inning rally as she tossed five innings of six-hit, one-run ball the rest of the way.
“I had to refocus,” Kirlin said. “I focused on the first pitch and on hitting the spot in the (catcher’s) glove.”
Her mates also played errorless ball behind her over the final five innings and made several nice plays led by sure-handed sophomore shortstop Emma Campbell.
“Their shortstop did a very good job. She made a lot of good plays,” Orono sophomore shortstop Katelyn Richards said.
“We played pretty well,” Central junior center fielder Smith said. “We had one bad inning, but we didn’t let it extend to other innings. And we swung the bats well.”
Central parlayed five hits, five walks and three errors into their nine-run first-inning outburst.
Senior third baseman Tasha Miller had a pair of run-scoring singles in the inning, Smith had a single and a bases-loaded walk and Logan Reardon had an RBI single.
But the Riots answered swiftly with their seven-run rally as they received four walks, run-scoring singles from Maiah Cyr and Richards and a sharp two-run single from Makayla Brown.
“Even though we lost, this was one of the best games we’ve played this season,” sophomore pitcher Cyr, who tossed a complete-game, said. “We did make some errors, but we came back and did the best we could.”
“This was the best we’ve hit all year,” Richards said.
The two teams combined for 25 hits as Central had 14 and Orono racked up 11.
Smith’s double, two singles and two RBIs led the Red Devils and Edgerly had two singles and four RBIs. Crocker doubled and singled and drove in a run; Miller had two singles and two RBIs and Reardon and Campbell had two singles apiece with Reardon knocking in a run.
Potvin had two RBIs.
“They’re a really good hitting team,” Orono coach Kristen Espling said. “Our bats finally came alive today. We had been hitting the ball real well right at people the last couple of games. It was nice to get good contact and have some success.”
Brown led the Red Riots with two doubles and a single and two RBIs. Cyr had three singles and two RBIs; Richards had a pair of singles and an RBI and Maddie Dichard had a pair of base hits.