BANGOR — When the Brewer High School Witches faced archrival Bangor on Friday afternoon, they were without standout slugging shortstop Kenzie Dore, who will be sidelined for at least another week with a dislocated knee.
But they didn’t need her.
Junior first baseman Becca Gideon belted a three-run homer, a run-scoring double and a base hit and the Rams committed 12 errors leading to 11 unearned runs as the undefeated Class B North softball leaders thumped the Class A Rams 15-3.
Brewer improved to 10-0 while Bangor fell to 3-6.
“We definitely took advantage of those errors. We had a great game as a team,” said Brewer junior right-hander Libby Hewes, who pitched a complete game, scattering 10 hits while striking out five and not walking anybody.
All three runs off Hewes were unearned. She is now 10-0.
“Even though we didn’t have one of our great players, we have players on our team who can always step up and fill in,” said Hewes.
“Kenzie is obviously a huge factor on our team but we have to step up and take her place until she gets better,” said Gideon, whose three-run homer to left center broke the game open in the fifth inning as it expanded Brewer’s lead to 8-3.
Hewes opened the inning by reaching on a shortstop error and M.J. Sellars was the beneficiary of a dropped fly ball in right before Gideon launched a 1-1 pitch off Alexis Cunningham over the fence in left center field.
“It felt amazing off the bat. I got really excited,” said Gideon, whose homer was her second of the season.
“Becca did the same thing down at Lawrence [in a 9-1 win on April 27],” said Brewer coach Skip Estes. “It was a tie game and they walked Kenzie and she hit a home run to put us up by two. She’s clutch when she has had to be.”
Brewer added another run later in the inning on Kathryn Austin’s base hit, a passed ball and another infield error.
Gideon ripped a run-scoring double to left center in the sixth to make it 10-3 and the Witches added five more in the seventh on three errors, two walks, singles by Emily Lord, Jordan Goodrich, Sellars and Gideon and a run-producing wild pitch.
Goodrich drove in two runs with her base hit.
“We spread the errors out quite well didn’t we? It was a full team effort,” quipped Bangor coach Don Stanhope. “I’ve never seen us play that scattered before.
“Brewer is a good team. They played well. They hit the gaps,” added Stanhope. “They put pressure on us and we weren’t ready for it. But we’ll get better.”
“They’re the number one team [in Class B North] for a reason,” said Bangor senior first baseman Lindy Bezgembluk. “They hit well and Libby is a good pitcher. She hits her spots very well and she keeps the ball down in the zone which is what she needs to do.”
Each team scored three unearned runs in the third. Brewer then took the lead for good in the fourth on Olivia Cattan’s lead-off double to left center, her steal of third, a Lord bunt/fielder’s choice on which no outs were recorded, Lord’s steal of second and Jayden Keefe’s RBI grounder on which a throwing error was committed allowing the second run to score.
Sellars had a double and two singles to complement Gideon for the Witches.
Cambria Prophete had two singles and two RBIs for the Rams. Cunningham and Morgan-Carter Moulton also had two singles each for Bangor.
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