BREWER, Maine — Becca Gideon had popped up with two runners on and two outs in the first inning after Witches home run leader M.J. Sellars had been walked intentionally in front of her.
The same situation occurred in the fifth inning but, this time, Brewer High School’s junior first baseman delivered.
She belted a three-run home run to extend Brewer’s lead to four runs and the undefeated and top-seeded Witches went on to post a 7-2 victory over eighth-seeded Gardiner in a Class B North quarterfinal at Coffin Field on Thursday.
Brewer (17-0) will host fifth seed Foxcroft Academy of Dover-Foxcroft, 15-3, in a Saturday semifinal.
Gardiner finished up at 11-7.
Brewer’s Libby Hewes and Gardiner’s Jill Bisson, both juniors, were locked in a pitching gem through four innings.
But junior catcher Jordan Goodrich belted her first homer of the season with one out in the fifth to break the scoreless tie and, after Kenzie Dore lined a two-out single just inside the left-field line, Sellars was again walked intentionally.
The right-handed-hitting Gideon then walloped the next pitch over the fence in right-center for her third homer of the season.
“I just wanted to do my job,” said Gideon. “M.J. has been doing her job the whole entire time which is why they were walking her. I needed to step up and take over.
“I had been struggling with keeping my head down but I kept my head down and I ripped the ball. It felt really good,” said Gideon.
“It was a curve to the outside (corner) but she got a hold of it before it broke,” said Bisson.
Goodrich’s homer off a changeup just cleared the left-field fence.
“My job all year has been to just get on base and let my teammates do their work behind me,” said Goodrich. “But I got a pitch right down the middle and went with it.”
That was all the run support Hewes was to need.
She had a perfect game through 4 2/3 innings before walking Olivia Tyler in the fifth and she lost her no-hitter with one out in the sixth when Haley Brann poked a single into short left field.
She finished with a two-hitter, striking out seven and walking three while throwing 94 pitches, 57 for strikes.
She threw 17 first-pitch strikes to the 26 hitters she faced.
“I felt like I pitched pretty good,” said Hewes. “My defense helped me out when I struggled and I walked a couple of people.”
Hewes said she never thought about a no-hitter.
“I just thought about one pitch at a time, one out at a time,” said Hewes.
“She had some speed and some movement on her ball,” said Gardiner senior shortstop Logan Granholm. “She liked to get ahead in the count. When she would, she liked to throw a high ball and some umps would call it (for strikes) so we had to swing. Sometimes we shouldn’t have been swinging.”
Gardiner got a run back in the sixth when Granholm drew a leadoff walk, went to third on Brawn’s single and an error by the left fielder and scored on Maddy Farnham’s sacrifice fly.
But the Witches added three in the bottom of the sixth on singles by Emily Lord, Jayden Keefe and Goodrich, a bases-loaded walk to Hewes and Dore’s two-run single to left.
Gardiner got another in the seventh on a walk to Brooke Somes, a wild pitch and Anna Toman’s RBI double down the left field line.
Dore had a double and two singles for Brewer and Goodrich was the only other repeat hitter with her homer and single.
Bisson went the distance for Gardiner, allowing nine hits with two strikeouts and five walks, two of which were intentional.
Brewer committed the game’s only error.
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