OLD TOWN, Maine — Olivia King has already had a productive freshman season and it got even more so Saturday.
King, who turned in impressive campaigns for the Old Town High School field hockey and Old Town-Orono boys ice hockey teams, broke a 4-4 tie with a two-run double in the sixth inning of the nightcap to help give Old Town a 7-5 victory over Presque Isle and a sweep of their softball doubleheader.
Old Town won the opener 13-7.
In the second game, Presque Isle freshman Emma Bouchard had provided the Wildcats (0-4) with a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth when she delivered a clutch two-out, run-scoring single that produced two more runs when two errors were made on the play.
But the Coyotes (3-0) scored four unearned runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to regain the lead, 7-4.
Mikayla Richards reached on a two-out infield throwing error and went to second on a wild pitch before Lauren Gasaway tied it with looping single into right-center.
“I knew I had to hit the ball and get on base so we could get more runs. I was hoping for a hit and I was extremely lucky,” Gasaway said.
Another infield throwing error put runners on second and third and King drilled her two-run double to left-center.
“I was just trying to hit the ball hard. I didn’t want to hit a pop fly,” said King, who scored on Olivia Westura’s single.
“[King] is a very good player, she’s a very good [ice] hockey player. She’s a good athlete and good athletes do things like that,” said Presque Isle senior first baseman Jillian Flynn, the goalie for the Presque Isle boys hockey team, who went 5-for-7 in the twinbill. “A good team like Old Town is going to have clutch hits just like our Emma did. And they capitalize on your mistakes.”
Flynn doubled home a seventh-inning run but winning pitcher Caitlyn King got the final two outs to end it.
Back-to-back doubles by Flynn and Savannah Rodriguez staked Presque Isle to a 1-0 lead in the third but Old Town scored twice in the fourth on a walk, Olivia Albert’s triple and Caitlyn King’s sacrifice fly.
Olivia King singled home a fifth-inning run to make it 3-1.
Senior Caitlyn King pitched a complete game, scattering nine hits with 12 strikeouts and no walks and a hit batsman. Three of the runs were earned.
She threw 104 pitches, 75 for strikes.
Freshman righty Sydney Thompson pitched very well for the Wildcats after throwing 125 pitches during her complete game in the opener. She allowed seven hits and just three earned runs with a walk. She didn’t strike out anybody but got 13 fly-ball and pop-fly outs as her slow deliveries kept Old Town off balance.
She threw 42 strikes among her 82 pitches.
“She really came through for us. She threw over 200 pitches in the two games and only walked one in the second game. That’s pretty impressive,” Presque Isle senior third baseman Taylor Williams said.
Olivia King was Old Town’s only repeat hitter with her double and single.
Flynn’s two doubles paced Presque Isle with Trombley and Bouchard getting two singles each.
The youthful Wildcats have seven freshmen on their 14-player roster.
In the first game, Gasaway rifled a two-run double that one-hopped the fence in the third inning to give Old Town some breathing room after the Wildcats had scored two in the top of the third to pull within 4-2.
Gasaway belted the first pitch to left center.
“[Thompson] had just walked Mikayla Richards so I thought she would be trying to throw more strikes,” Gasaway said. “She threw me a fastball right over the plate and I pretty much timed it up right and hit it.”
“That definitely helped us mentally,” Old Town coach Jenn Plourde said. “We got a good boost out of that.”
The Coyotes added two more runs in the inning to make it 8-2 and Gasaway sliced an RBI double just inside the right-field line to key a three-run fourth-inning rally that made it 11-2.
Presque Isle rallied for four in the fifth thanks to Thompson’s two-run double but Old Town answered with two in the bottom of the inning on a Natalie St. Louis single, a walk, a wild pitch, Olivia Albert’s RBI fielder’s choice and Richards’ run-scoring triple.
St. Louis’ double and two singles and Olivia King’s three singles paced Old Town’s 12-hit attack. Richards tripled and singled and Gasaway had her two doubles and three RBIs. Mckenna Smith had two singles.
Smith recorded the win, surviving seven hits, seven walks and eight wild pitches in a complete game. She struck out 14 while throwing 147 pitches, 85 for strikes.
“I know I can pitch a lot better. But we won,” Smith said.
Flynn had three singles and Thompson doubled and singled for Presque Isle.