Ever since her freshman year, McKenna Smith wanted to be included among the finalists for the Miss Maine Softball Award, which is given to the state’s top senior player.
The Old Town High School pitcher has accomplished that goal and will find out Thursday if she has won the coveted award during the annual North-South all-star softball games at Colby College in Waterville.
Smith is one of seven finalists, and she is the only one from a school north of Scarborough.
The others are University of Maine-bound Grace McGouldrick of Gorham, Chloe Griffin of Scarborough, Reilly Eddy of Traip Academy in Kittery, Anya Chase of Wells, Mackenzie Aleva of Noble in North Berwick and Brook Davis of Biddeford.
“It feels good. It is definitely an honor,” Smith said.
She was chosen the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year for the second straight season.
“It shows that hard work pays off,” said the hard-throwing Smith, who has been pitching since the fifth grade.
She had a 10-1 regular-season record with a 0.68 earned run average. She struck out 151 batters in only 72 innings (2.1 per inning). She allowed 41 hits and walked just 15.
Smith also was Old Town’s leading hitter, with a .491 average and a team-high five homers and 27 hits. Her 21 runs batted in and three triples ranks second on the team. She also hit four doubles and scored 18 runs.
Smith led the 16-2 Coyotes to a berth in the Class B North semifinals where they were beaten 3-0 by Oceanside of Rockland.
“I think I improved a lot from last year. I definitely wanted to go farther but it wasn’t meant for us,” Smith said. “Pitching-wise, I raised my speed and my spins were better. I cleaned everything up. Everything was smoother. And I spent a lot of time working on my hitting.”
“She had a fantastic year,” said Skip Estes, the coach of the state Class B champion Brewer Witches. “She was a dominant pitcher and she is a good hitter, too.”
Smith had pitched Old Town to its second straight state championship in 2017.
“She had a great year,” Old Town coach Jenn Plourde said.
“Everyone knew her name and she had to deal with all the media pressure. But she was still one of the top pitchers in the state,” Ploude added. “She worked hard every single day to get better, and she wanted her teammates to do the same thing.”
“It was very much a growing year for me and for the team. It was really cool to see how much we grew. I enjoyed all of the girls on the team and wanted them to be able to look up to me and come to me with any issues that they had,” said co-captain Smith, who was an outstanding center fielder her sophomore year when freshman Olivia Albert pitched the team to the state title.
Smith will be a scholarship player at NCAA Division II program St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, next fall.
Thursday’s Class A-B Senior All-Star game pitting the North versus the South will cap the day beginning at 7 p.m. The C-D game starts at 5 p.m.
The Class C-D Underclass game (grades 9-11) kicks things off at 1 p.m., with the A-B Underclass game slated for 3 p.m.
The $5 admission will help defray the cost of the games.
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