SANFORD — Brooke Cross tied the game with a three-run homer in the seventh inning and Thornton Academy scored three runs in the top of the ninth to beat Sanford 11-9 in an SMAA softball game Monday at Witham Field.

It was the second straight loss for Sanford (7-2), which entered the game ranked No. 1 in the Western Class A Heal point standings. Thornton Academy (6-1), the defending Western Class A champion, was ranked third.

Brooke Cross, right, is greeted at home by her Thornton Academy teammates after hitting a three-run home run to tie the game in the seventh inning of the Trojans’ 11-9 win. Photos by Shawn Patrick Ouellette

Thornton Academy pitcher Bailey Tremblay struck out 12 and allowed 11 hits in nine innings to earn the win.

Sanford had an 8-5 lead in the seventh and was two outs away from victory, but with runners on first and second, Cross connected with a 2-1 pitch and launched it over the fence in left-center field.

“I honestly told my coach I was going to hit one before I went up,” said Cross. “(Coach John Provost) always stresses to us: ‘Do your job.’ I knew there were two people on base and I’m like, ‘if I hit this right here, I tie it up, that’d be doing my job.’ I told him, ‘I’m feeling home run, Coach.’ (I) went up and just did my job.”

Thornton Academy (6-1) took a 9-8 lead in the ninth inning when Libby Pomerleau scored on a wild pitch. Keira Fitzgerald drew a walk to load the bases for Kaya O’Connor, who laced a two-run single to left.

Sanford did not go down without a fight. Isabelle Johnston led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to center and scored on a single by Morgan Coleman two batters later. But with runners on first and second, Bailey Tremblay struck out the next batter and got a groundout to second base to end the game.

“I’m very impressed by our no-quit (attitude). Our attitude is to keep battling until the last out and we did that tonight,” said Sanford Coach Mike Bailey. “We came up on the short end of things, but we’re going to learn from this and get better from it.”

The game featured two of the top pitchers in the SMAA, but both Tremblay and Sanford’s Jen Jones were hit harder than usual. Tremblay allowed 11 hits and struck out 12, and Jones struck out 11 but gave up 13 hits, including two home runs.

“(Tremblay) and Jones aren’t used to getting hit around. For them to stay composed for nine innings, for them to stay composed and keep their teams in the game was remarkable,” said Provost.

Through three innings, it looked like the expected pitchers’ duel, with Sanford holding a 1-0 lead. Then each team scored three runs in the fourth, and the offensive fireworks continued.

“It was a heck of a game,” said Bailey. “It was a pitchers’ duel (for a while), both teams hit at the right times, and it was a back-and-forth game.”

Kaylee Burns played a solid game at third base for Thornton Academy and hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning.

Nicole Main was a catalyst for Sanford out of the leadoff spot reaching base five times (4 for 5, hit by pitch). Coleman drove in four runs from the No. 8 spot in the lineup.

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