Editor’s note: This is the 26th installment of our new series, “Remember When,” in which we revisit some of the memorable games, events, streaks and runs in high school spring sports we’ve covered over the last few decades.
It wasn’t the nerves that motivated Lori Loftus as she and the rest of the Winslow High School softball team warmed up for the 1993 Class B state championship game. Loftus, then Lori Desmond, and her teammates were driven more by anticipation.
Winslow’s baseball team had just won a state title with an 8-1 victory over Cape Elizabeth. Now, it was the softball team’s turn.
“We went and watched (the baseball team). We thought ‘Oh my gosh, what if we do the same thing?'” Loftus said.
With a 2-1 victory over Windham, the Winslow softball team completed a Black Raider sweep at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, setting off a 77-mile celebration party on the bus ride back to Winslow.
“It was a great celebration on the ride back,” said Scott St. Peter, Winslow’s winning pitcher in the baseball championship.
Winslow’s softball team rolled through the season, finishing 20-0. The baseball team went 18-1, the loss coming in a conference playoff exhibition game, St. Peter said.
“Nobody’s head was in it,” St. Peter said of the loss. “It was good it happened right before the tournament. We knew we had to play hard every game.”
Minor details from the games have evaporated from Loftus’ memory in the 27 years since, but the support felt by the Black Raiders remains fresh and vivid. Winslow fans arrived early for the baseball game, and stayed enthusiastic through the softball game’s completion.
The softball and baseball championships fell in the middle of a run of Winslow championships. The football team won Class B titles in 1992 and 93. The field hockey team also struck gold in 1993.
In this 1993 Morning Sentinel press clipping, Lori Desmond is shown getting ready to hit. Desmond hit .440 in the 1993 regular season. Submitted photo
“We had a pretty (talented) athletic group in boys and girls sports,” said Loftus, who was a junior on the softball championship team in ’93 and played on the title-winning field hockey squad the following fall.
Going into the spring, both Winslow baseball and softball teams expected to contend.
“There was some good talent there. We were three or four pitchers deep, and that’s important,” said Blaine Miller, Winslow baseball coach at the time.
St. Peter, a senior on the team, recalled being one of the few veterans on a team loaded with a strong sophomore class. Those sophomores went on to be the core of the Winslow baseball team that won another state title in 1995. As a senior leader, it made sense for St. Peter to get the start against Cape Elizabeth.
“Marc Hachey (a junior) was our No. 1, but he had pitched earlier (in the week),” said Miller, who owns the guide service Allagash Guides, Inc. “Scotty had pitched well all season long. He did a heck of a job.”
The scouting report on the Capers was this: They liked to get ahead early and harass opponents on the bases. St. Peter gave up a run early, then settled down and was strong for 6 1/3 innings, allowing five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
“I’d pitched ever since I was 8 years old, and that’s probably the only game I was ever nervous,” St. Peter said. “I think they were the No. 1 hitting team in the state, if my memory is correct. By the third inning , I felt like I was in a groove. That’s probably my best high school performance, as far as controlling things on the mound.”
St. Peter’s strong effort kept the game close long enough for the Black Raiders bats to get hot. In the top of the fifth inning, Aaron Peters hit a two-run home run to give Winslow the lead for good.
“(Peters) hit a bomb, and I knew that was it. It was clear (the Capers) weren’t reaching base,” said St. Peter, who lives in Waterville with his family and works as an account manager for IRC Industrial Roofing.
The Black Raiders broke the game open with six runs in the top of the sixth inning, the big hit Greg Dunbar’s two-run double. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, a tired St. Peter gave the ball to Dunbar, who got the final two outs to clinch the title.
Then, the attention shifted to the softball team. Getting to the state game was a big deal for the Black Raiders, who had to beat a strong Bucksport team in the regional final to advance.
“Our biggest win to that point was Bucksport. Bucksport at that time was the ultimate,” Loftus said.
The softball championship game between Winslow and Windham was a pitchers duel — the game was scoreless until the sixth inning. Loftus drove in a run with a bloop single just over the infield, giving Winslow a 1-0 lead.
“I could hit the ball pretty far, but I couldn’t run fast,” Loftus, who now teaches special education at Winslow High and coaches the school’s unified basketball team, said. “It was a bloop, and when the right fielder threw it in, it hit me in the thigh. I had the biggest bruise.”
Shannon Morneau’s RBI single in the top of the seventh inning pushed the Black Raiders’ lead to 2-0. In the bottom of the seventh, Winslow pitcher Jen Harrison ran into one of the few jams she saw all day. Windham scored a run to cut Winslow’s lead in half, and the Eagles had the tying run on third base with two outs.
Loftus, a catcher, said Harrison was as strong a competitor as the Black Raiders had.
“She was intense. I remember playing kickball with her outside my house when we were kids, and she was always competitive,” Loftus said. “She only had a fastball and changeup. She was on. She was outstanding. She had been in big games before.”
The Winslow baseball team rolled past Cape Elizabeth, 8-1, in the 1993 Class B state final. In this Morning Sentinel press clipping, Marc Hachey is shown celebrating after the title game. Submitted photo
Harrison got a lazy fly ball to center to end the game and complete the Winslow sweep of the day.
“They were a real good team,” Miller said of the Winslow softball squad. “It was a real good day for Winslow.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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