ORONO, Maine — One swing of the bat proved to be decisive in Tuesday’s Class D North championship game between defending two-time titlist Penobscot Valley of Howland and Katahdin of Stacyville in a battle of unbeatens at the Pierre and Catherine Labat Softball Complex at the University of Maine in Orono.
PVHS junior catcher Abby Farley belted a game-tying, two-run triple with two outs in the third inning and also scored what proved to be the winning run when Katahdin had a miscue on the relay from the outfield and the Howlers went on to post a 5-2 victory.
Penobscot Valley, now 17-0, will take on 17-1 North Yarmouth Academy, a 5-0 winner over defending state champ Buckfield, in Saturday’s 4 p.m. state title game at St. Joseph’s College in Windham.
Youthful Katahdin, with just two seniors, wound up 16-1.
Trailing 2-0 entering the third, Charlotte Dube drew a one-out walk and Lila Cummings followed with an infield single to third. One out later, Farley rifled freshman standout pitcher Polly Cullen’s 2-2 pitch into the right center field gap to deliver both runners and she raced across the plate when the relay throw to the infield was dropped.
“It felt really good off the bat,” said Farley, the Penobscot Valley Conference’s Class D Player of the Year. “I just had to believe in myself when I got up to the plate.”
Farley said she was looking for a pitch that was “too far over the plate” and that’s what she got.
“I was ready,” said Farley.
“That was a momentum-turner right there. Abby has been clutch for us all year,” said PVHS coach Jessica McKechnie.
“She’s been great. There’s a reason she is the Player of the Year,” said senior shortstop Rylee Moulton.
“That definitely got us going. That fired us up,” said senior first baseman Cummings.
Katahdin coach Justin Stevens coaches Farley’s Swing City summer league team out of Old Town and said he probably should have intentionally walked her like he did in the fifth inning.
“That’s on me,” said Stevens. “I know her well.”
The Howlers added insurance runs in the fifth and sixth innings with Cummings driving in both runs.
In the fifth, walks to Paxtyn King and Dube and a wild pitch put runners on second and third with nobody out and Cummings knocked in King with an infield single to the shortstop’s left.
In the sixth, three walks and a Cummings’ fielder’s choice produced the run.
“It always feels great to move people around and get them in yourself,” said Cummings.
Katahdin had taken a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on one-out base hits by Emily McNally and Cullen, a Trinity Lane sacrifice and Elizabeth Lane’s two-out two-run infield single off the arm of Moulton.
PVC Class D Pitcher of the Year and Miss Maine Softball finalist Lauren Veino went the distance for the win.
She allowed seven hits with seven strikeouts and five walks. She threw 110 pitches, 70 for strikes.
“I pitched all right. It wasn’t my best performance, by far, but relying on my team helped me,” said Veino. “We made it through as a team.
“I started with my curve and it was working but sometimes you don’t always get the calls so I switched to a screwball and heavily relied on that,” said Veino. “We had a lot more success with that. I got a lot of pop-ups.”
Veino gave up just two hits over the final three innings, a double down the third base line by Trinity Lane in the fifth and a long double to left center in the seventh by Cullen, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple.
Cummings had two of PVHS’s three hits, both singles.
Impressive freshman Cullen had a double and two singles for the Cougars and pitched a three-hit complete game with 11 strikeouts and nine walks, one intentional. She threw 66 strikes among her 122 pitches.
“She is a very good pitcher. They have a lot coming back. They’re definitely going to be good the next couple of years,” said Cummings.
“It was a tough battle,” said Katahdin coach Stevens. “We did well. They hit a little better than we expected. But I’m proud of our girls. We’re young. We’ll be back.”