BREWER, Maine — After losing in the Class D state final to Richmond last spring, the Stearns High School softball team from Millinocket wanted another crack at Richmond this season.
The Lady Minutemen earned that opportunity Wednesday night as they received a grand slam, two singles and six RBIs from junior second baseman Cassidy McLeod en route to a 12-1 victory over Madawaska at Coffin Field.
Top seed Stearns, now 17-2, will play 17-0 Richmond in Saturday’s noon state championship game at Coffin Field.
Stearns pounded out 15 hits.
The third-seeded Owls of Madawaska, who beat Highview Christian of Charleston 10-5 in a semifinal on Tuesday, finished up at 11-5. Their semifinal kept getting pushed back due to wet field conditions and rain.
Stearns senior righthander Jessicca Girsa tossed a complete-game seven-hitter, striking out seven and not walking anyone. She threw 98 strikes of which 76 were strikes.
Stearns scored a first-inning run on a walk to Girsa, her stolen base and Lauren Jamo’s sharp RBI single to center.
McLeod broke the game open with her grand slam in the second inning after Peighton Ingersoll looped a single into left, Emma Alley reached on an infield error and Jamo drew a two-out walk.
McLeod belted a 2-0 pitch over the fence in left center field for her 10th homer of the season.
“I was just looking to get on and move the runners,” said McLeod. “As soon as I hit it, I knew it was gone.”
“That grand slam really got us going,” said Stearns coach Nick Cullen.
Madawaska scored its only run in the third on one-out singles by Alexis Levesque and Liz Theriault and Aspen Cote’s run-scoring fielder’s choice.
Stearns answered with four in the bottom of the third.
Abby Russell singled and Grace Farrington knocked her in with a double over left fielder Gabby Cyr’s head.
Ingersoll singled and Alley’s bunt single loaded the bases.
Girsa then drilled a ball that appeared to be headed for a grand slam but Madawaska center fielder Aspen Cote did a nice job getting her glove on the ball and keeping it in the park. So it wound up being an RBI single.
McLeod capped the rally with a sharp two-run ground-ball single to center.
Stearns scored its final two runs in the sixth on Russell’s RBI single and Farrington’s two-run single.
“I didn’t throw my best game but I threw decent today,” said Girsa. “My defense backed me up really well.”
“We don’t usually play against fast pitching, we aren’t used to fast pitching,” said Madawaska’s Cote. “She was pretty close to the fastest we’ve seen.”
“They got the timely hits,” said Madawaska coach Matt Rossignol. “We had runners on base but we couldn’t get a hit at key times, especially early on.
“Stearns has a lot of depth in their lineup. They don’t make many mistakes and their pitcher is always around the strike zone,” said Rossignol. “We don’t see a lot of fast pitching in our league but I thought we put the ball in play pretty well.”
“It was quite exciting. I’m pretty proud of us,” said Cote.
Steans had to adapt to the slow deliveries of freshman Jenna Dugal, who did not use the windmill delivery.
“It was hard to adjust to a slow pitcher,” said McLeod. “But everybody did that really well.”
In addition to McLeod’s three hits, Farrington had two singles to go with her double and finished with three RBIs. Jamo had three singles and an RBIs and Russell and Ingersoll each singled twice.
Levesque doubled and singled for Madawaska and Dakota Cyr singled twice.