Messalonskee, Madison and Richmond softball, none of whom experienced defeat during the 2016 regular season, are back where they were last year at this time — the No. 1 seeds in their respective regions with the release of the final high school Heal points standings.
All three had plenty of talent and incentive to separate themselves during the regular season. The Eagles and Bobcats begin defense of their Class A and D state titles, respectively, next week. The Bulldogs hope to clear at least one more hurdle after falling in the Class C regional final to Telstar last year.
The preliminary round of the tournament begins next Tuesday, followed by the quarterfinals on Thursday. Although the field will not be officially finalized until Friday morning, most of the seedings and matchups are all but set.
Enough of the unexpected has happened in Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A softball this season to not just hand over the A North title to the top seed, Messalonskee (15-0-1). Leo Bouchard, coach of the undefeated defending state champions, is well aware of the potential pitfalls in the region and has spent practice time this week making sure his Eagles are aware of them, too.
“Even halfway through the season, my coaches and players and I were trying to make sense of the way things are going, and we just couldn’t do it,” Bouchard said, noting that the Eagles’ own tie with Oxford Hills added to the confusion. “There’s almost some parity out there, even though the records don’t necessarily reflect that. For Mt. Blue to beat Skowhegan twice. For Lewiston, even though they’ve been struggling in the second half of the season, to beat Edward Little (twice), but lose to Mt. Ararat in the first half, we’ve seen some twists and turns.”
So do those twists and turns give Bouchard pause, that all those twists were a preview of bigger ones to come in the tournament?
“I don’t want to say no, but in all of the years I’ve coached, at whatever level, I’ve never been more confident in a team than the one I’m with now. Even last year’s team,” Bouchard said. “These girls show up on the field expecting to win, not hoping to win, and therein lies the difference.”
Another difference for the Eagles is pitcher Kirsten Pelletier, who was named Maine’s Gatorade Softball Player of the Year on Thursday. Bouchard said the team feeds off of the Bates College-bound senior, who is just six strikeouts shy of 200 for the season and while having walked only 12.
“She’s got command of every pitch she throws. Other than the extreme cold we had a couple of times this season, I’ve not seen a day where she didn’t,” he said.
The parity after Messalonskee is apparent in the next two groups, which consist of four 11-win teams (Oxford Hills, Bangor Edward Little and Cony) and four teams (Skowhegan, Lewiston, Brewer and Mt. Ararat) with eight or nine wins but at least one victory over someone in the 11-win tier. That includes No. 6 Skowhegan (9-7), which beat its quarterfinal opponent, No. 3 Bangor (11-5), 7-6, in Bangor on May 16.
Class B North boasts another unbeaten defending regional champion in the top spot, 16-0 Hermon. Winslow (15-1) is the No. 3 seed and also earned a bye to the quarterfinals. Preliminary matchups include No. 5 Nokomis (13-4) hosting No. 12 John Bapst (7-9), No. 11 Gardiner (8-8) at No. 6 Ellsworth (11-5) and No. 10 Erskine (9-7) at No. 7 Medomak Valley (11-5).
York (15-1) is the top seed in Class B South. Oak Hill (14-2) earned the No. 4 seed to get a bye to the quarterfinals, where it will host the winner of the prelim between No. 5 Cape Elizabeth and No. 12 Morse.
Madison returns to the top spot in Class C South with a 16-0 record with an opportunistic offense and junior pitcher Madeline Wood getting stronger as her starts unfold.
“Having Telstar at two and then Carrabec — which gives us our toughest games — in the three spot — we miss them until the Southern Maine final — is good. But you’ve got to beat them all,” LeBlanc said. “The kids know what we need to do.”
Carrabec (11-5) edged out Traip Academy (10-6) from the Western Maine Conference for the third spot in the Heals by less than eight-tenths of a point and will host No. 6 Lisbon in the quarterfinals. That means No. 5 Hall-Dale (10-6) will travel to Kittery to face the Rangers. No. 7 Monmouth (8-8) draws No. 10 Winthrop (5-11) in one preliminary, just days after the rivals wrapped up their regular-season with a 2-0 Monmouth win on Thursday.
In Class D South, Richmond (15-0) is once again the top seed seeking its fourth consecutive state title and seventh regional championship in a row. Led by the interchangeable battery of Meranda Martin and Sydney Tilton, the Bobcats also carry a 67-game winning streak with a bye to the semifinals on June 11. They await the winner of the quarterfinal between No. 4 Greenville (14-2) and No. 5 Rangeley (6-7). No. 6 Temple Academy (5-9) makes its softball tournament debut in the other quarterfinal, which is at No. 3 Buckfield (13-3).
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter:@RAWmaterial33
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