STANDISH — Lindsy Hoopingarner didn’t need to slide, but she thought it would be a cool way to end the Western Class D softball championship game.

“I was just really excited,” Hoopingarner said. “I was going to go headfirst, but I decided that’d be a little over dramatic.”

Hoopingarner doubled with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, then scored the winning run on Ciarra Lancaster’s double as top-seeded Richmond defeated No. 3 Buckfield 3-2 Tuesday at Richard W. Bailey Field.

Richmond, the defending state champion, improved to 17-0 and will play in the state championship game at 3 p.m. Saturday at St. Joseph’s College against Eastern champion Deer Isle-Stonington.

The score was 2-2 when Richmond came to bat in the seventh. Buckfield pitcher Heather Clavet got the first two outs, then gave up Hoopingarner’s double to left field. Lancaster, who had three hits, took a ball and fouled off a pitch before driving one well over the head of right fielder Sami Zak, easily scoring Hoopingarner.

“Hey, these are the kind of games you want to play in,” said Bucks Coach Ken Farrington.

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Richmond took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Tara Hurley tripled down the right-field line and Hoppingarner reached on an error.

The Bucks (11-5) tied the game in the top of the second on singles by Abby Bragg (3 for 3), Sami Jones and Alannah Knox, then took the lead in the fourth when Bragg singled and scored on a two-out error, the only one by the Bobcats.

“Defensively, we’re solid,” Richmond Coach Rick Coughlin said. “Every one of them knows pretty much what the other is going to do.”

Richmond tied it again in the bottom of the fourth when Alyssa Pearson reached on an error and Heather Brown doubled her home with two outs.

 


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