BREWER — The Brewer High School Witches got only one hit in their match-up against defending two-time Class B state champ Old Town on Monday and it didn’t factor in a run being scored.
But the Witches, in their first year in Class B after dropping down from Class A, took advantage of three costly Coyote errors, received a four-hit gem from junior right-hander Libby Hewes and played errorless ball behind her to triumph 3-0 at Coffin Field.
Hard-throwing Old Town senior righty McKenna Smith had a no-hitter until Kenzie Dore hooked a sharp line-drive double to left with one out in the sixth inning. And she struck out 14, including three on nine pitches in one stretch.
But her defense let her down and the Coyotes couldn’t capitalize on a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the third inning.
Brewer improved to 6-0 while Old Town fell to 3-1.
“We knew we had to bring our A game,” said sophomore shortstop Dore. “They’re obviously really good. We had to focus and play our butts off.
“We took advantage of those errors and and our defense was really good today,” added Dore.
“This was our third game without any errors,” pointed out Brewer coach Skip Estes. “Our defense was phenomenal. McKenna is such a good pitcher, we had to capitalize every time we got runners on. We capitalized on their mistakes.”
The opportunistic Witches scored a run in the first and two in the third.
Jordan Goodrich opened the first by reaching on a two-base throwing error by the shortstop, she moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Dore’s grounder to short.
“I knew I had to do my job and bring her in,” said Dore.
In the third, Smith issued her only walk of the game to Jayden Keefe leading off the inning and Keefe moved to third with nobody out on a pair of passed balls.
One out later, Goodrich grounded to third and Keefe scored when the third baseman overthrew first. Goodrich scored one out later when the left fielder dropped Dore’s fly ball.
“We should still be playing. They were able to manufacture three unearned runs,” said Old Town coach Jenn Plourde. “That’s the game right there. We had our opportunities but we just couldn’t get the runs in.”
Old Town had a runner on second with nobody out in the second inning when Mikaela Kenny walked and stole second.
But Hewes induced a grounder to third and struck out the next two hitters.
In the third, a walk to Olivia Westura, Morgan Love’s bunt single and Smith’s infield single loaded the bases with one out.
But Dore made a nice play on Olivia Albert’s grounder, throwing to the plate for the forceout, and then third baseman M.J. Sellars made an equally impressive play on Kenny’s hot-shot grounder, snaring it and stepping on the bag for the final out.
Hewes allowed only one baserunner the rest of the way. Three of the four hits off her were infield hits.
“It was just a really good day on the mound and I had great defense behind me,” said Hewes. “I had a lot of confidence. It’s pretty easy to pitch with them behind me.”
Hewes struck out 10 and walked two while throwing 54 strikes among her 77 pitches.
“She had pretty good movement on her ball and we definitely struggled with her curve,” said Old Town junior shortstop Albert.
Smith threw 62 strikes among her 81 pitches and had just the one walk to go with her 14 strikeouts.
“I would have rather had no strikeouts and a win. They didn’t make any errors and we had some. Props to them for getting it done,” said Smith.
“McKenna’s a great pitcher. She’s the best pitcher we’ve seen so far, absolutely,” said Hewes.
Morgan Love and Westura had the other singles for Old Town.
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