OLD TOWN, Maine — The day belonged to McKenna Smith.
The junior right-hander pitched six no-hit innings before winding up with a two-hitter and she also aided her own cause with a double and a single as No. 2 Old Town topped arch-rival Hermon 7-0 in their Class B North softball semifinal Saturday afternoon.
Defending state champ Old Town (16-2) meets No. 4 Oceanside of Rockland/Thomaston (16-2) in Tuesday’s 7 p.m. regional championship game at Coffin Field in Brewer.
Third seed Hermon wound up at 16-2 with both losses coming to Old Town.
It was the fourth consecutive year the two Penobscot Valley Conference schools met in the semifinals and Old Town has won the last two after Hermon had triumphed in the first two.
The hard-throwing Smith struck out 11 and walked three while throwing 94 pitches of which 62 were strikes.
“She pitched great,” said Hermon coach Rob Jenkins. “She had a lot of great stuff. She threw her rise ball real well, she had a great changeup and she was mixing up her pitches.”
She lost her no-hitter when Hailey Perry rifled a single to right-center to lead off the seventh. Bre Oakes followed with a long double to left, but Perry tried to score and was thrown out at the plate.
“Her curveball and rise were what I struggled with all season,” said senior catcher Perry.
“Her spins threw us off. Our bats weren’t going today,” said sophomore third baseman Oakes.
Smith has a variety of pitches and she said she threw them all.
“I tried to catch them off guard. I was just trying to make a statement. I wanted to make everyone on my team proud,” said Smith, the Penobscot Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year and Player of the Year.
“She had a lot of speed and movement on her pitches, just like she normally does,” said Old Town senior catcher Natalie St. Louis.
Smith said she didn’t know she had a no-hitter in the seventh and it didn’t bother her that Perry got the first hit.
“That’s all right. She’s a great hitter,” said Smith.
Her teammates turned in an exceptional defensive performance, making only one error and coming up with a number of gems.
Third baseman Lauren Gasaway snared a well-hit line drive off the bat of Katie Windsor in the first inning and dove to make a terrific catch on Windsor’s bunt in the third and turn it into a double play.
“I’m very thankful to have my defense behind me. They made some incredible plays,” said Smith.
Offensively, the Coyotes resorted to small ball and it paid huge dividends.
The Coyotes broke a scoreless tie with one run in the fourth and tallied three in the fifth. Bunts played an important role.
Gasaway ripped a double down the third-base line with one out in the fourth, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Jasmine Smith’s bunt in front of the plate. Perry made a nice play to throw Smith out but Gasaway beat the throw home from first.
Jayden Cain opened the fifth with a bunt and she wound up on second courtesy of a throwing error. St. Louis then bunted down the third-base line and was ruled safe at first. Cain kept running on the play and scored all the way from second.
A fielder’s choice, a wild pitch, McKenna Smith’s resounding double to left-center and a walk loaded the bases with two outs.
Jannessa Brown hit a sharp ground ball that glanced off pitcher Windsor’s glove to second baseman Lexey MacManus, but the first baseman mishandled MacManus’ throw which allowed two runs to score.
Old Town added three more in the sixth on a walk, singles by Cain and St. Louis, run-scoring singles by McKenna Smith and Olivia Albert and Gasaway’s sacrifice fly.
“Small ball works for us,” said Gasaway. “It throws them off-guard and it puts pressure on them. It makes them make mistakes instead of us.”
“At this level and at this point of the season, you can’t make the mistakes we made in the field today. It gets you every time,” said Jenkins.
Besides McKenna Smith, Cain was the only other repeat hitter with two singles.
Windsor pitched an eight-hitter for the Hawks and made two stellar defensive plays on scorching line drives, turning one into a double play.