GRAY — Winning pitcher Alie Martell used her bat to set the tone Wednesday and Gray-New Gloucester went on to a 15-5 victory against Kennebunk in a Western Maine Conference softball game.
Martel, the No. 2 hitter for the Patriots (2-0), hit a solo home run as part of a five-run first inning.
“I kind of looked at it as a reality check right there,” said Kennebunk Coach Kortney Nedeau, whose team was playing its opener. “This is how it’s going to be. People can hit. This is varsity softball.
“We have three freshmen and five sophomores, one junior and a couple seniors. I think we did gear up for the challenge after that, but we were still nervous and the jitters were real.”
Gray-New Gloucester used three hits and a walk, and took advantage of a pair of errors to send nine hitters to the plate in the first.
The Patriots then sent 10 more hitters to the plate in the second, again taking advantage of a pair of errors to extend their advantage to 11-0.
“We’ve just been continuing to work on hitting in practice,” said Gray-New Gloucester Coach Amanda Harmon. “Just putting the confidence in there that in any situation that comes up, no matter who is in the box, they have to be able to produce and advance the runner.”
Gray-New Gloucester produced throughout the lineup. Martell also added an RBI triple, and Haley True, Grace Kariotis and Kaelyn Woods each scored twice.
Also, Hannah Dixon went 3 for 4 and scored three times for the Patriots.
Martell didn’t allow a hit until the third, and kept Kennebunk scoreless for the first four innings.
“She threw pretty well and they just made more plays than we did today,” said Nedeau. “They deserved to win this one.”
Control issues, coupled with a defensive mistake by Gray-New Gloucester, allowed Kennebunk to score four times in the fifth before adding its final run in the sixth inning.
Martell finished with nine strikeouts, five hits allowed and two earned runs.
“I praise them,” said Harmon. “Getting down pretty quickly, it’s easy to lose that desire or focus, but they came back and had some spunk in them.
“Our pitcher dueled a little bit with herself today, but she made the pitches she needed and we made plays behind her. I give them a lot of credit.”
Malori Cole, Brittney Gregoire, Lindsey Gregoire, Allie Gregoire and Emily Moore scored for the Rams. Pitcher Sydney Waitt surrendered three earned runs and struck out five.
“(Sydney) was doing her job,” said Nedeau. “It was just early jitters, really. The defense is the biggest thing.
“She was throwing the ball over the plate and they were putting it in play, but we only gave up three earned runs. When you look at it, it’s really just tightening the defense, but I was happy and proud of them to stay up and keep playing with their heads held high.”
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