The Scarborough Red Storm just completed another perfect regular season to earn the No. 1 seed entering the Western Maine Class A softball tournament. The defending state champs haven’t lost in two years – the win streak is 36 and counting.

Still, longtime coach Tom Griffin sees room for improvement. Those uniforms are just too clean.

“We haven’t been diving for balls and I’ve been really irked about that,” Griffin said. “On (tough) plays defensively, we’re not leaving our feet. So after practice the other day, I had them rolling in the dirt for about five minutes. They were dragging each other through the dirt. Then I had them sit down and said, ‘You’re dirty. We’re going to get dirty the rest of the way.’ So they all went home from practice the other day dirty, just filthy and muddy. I think they got the message.”

It sure appeared that way during Monday’s 3-1 win over South Portland in the SMAA semifinals at Scarborough. Second baseman Reegan Brackett set the tone early, diving to rob Alexis Bogdanovich and the Red Riots of a base hit on a sharp line drive on the second pitch of the game, then erasing Kelsey Flaherty, who had reached on a ground-rule double on the first pitch, by tossing to second for the double play.

“Reegan’s been diving for balls all year,” Griffin said. “She made a great play at second base. She’s had a great year at second base and that helps inspire the team.”

In the second inning, Jenn Colpitts made a fine diving catch out in right field to take an extra base hit away from Kayla Ferrara. She even cracked a smile as she tossed the ball into the infield, as if to say, “hey, it’s kind of fun playing defense with reckless abandon.”

“I told them I don’t care if you dive for a ball and it gets by you and we lose the state championship because of it,” Griffin said. “I’ll still be so happy with you. What we don’t want to do is have a ball land at our feet and say, ‘Oh, could we have had that?’ Sometimes I don’t think these kids realize they can catch up to these balls. I have tremendous speed in the outfield.”

The Red Storm turned another liner by Bogdanovich into a double play in the third and didn’t make an error in the game. While the Scarborough offense is certainly potent, the team knows defense will be key to defending its state championship. There are too many tough pitchers to face. The team can’t rely on out-slugging the opponent.

“If we just go out there, stay humble, put the ball in play and make the defensive plays, I think something special could happen,” said Scarborough clean-up hitter and first baseman Grace Ledoux.

The Red Storm will see No. 4 South Portland again in the Western A semifinals on Saturday if both teams win their quarterfinal games on Thursday.

In the two team’s first meeting on May 30, Scarborough won 1-0 on Ledoux’s RBI single in the seventh inning. Red Storm No. 1 starter Melissa Dellatorre was virtually unhittable in that game, as she’s been all season. But South Portland counterpart Julie DiMatteo was nearly as good.

The outcome of a third meeting between the two teams will likely be determined in a similar low scoring fashion.

“It will probably come down to something in the infield,” said South Portland coach Jim Hartman. “We’re going to see some great pitching – DiMatteo and Dellatorre. There probably won’t be a lot of balls hit out there (to the outfield). It’s going to come down to play in the infield.”

That’s where a diving play to take away a single up the middle, or to snag a line drive could be the difference between a win and a loss. It’s not always an error that gives the opponent an edge. A slight hesitation or a bad bounce can be just as damaging.

“You just hope the ball bounces in your direction,” Griffin said. “I’ve lost enough playoff games to realize that – sometimes it’s just the way the ball bounces. Sometimes it’s making that one mistake at the wrong time and you put yourself right out of the game.”

Griffin knows he can’t control which way the ball bounces, so his answer is try not to let it. He tells his players to get those feet moving once the ball leaves the bat, and leave them if you must to make a play. Those grass and dirt stains will come out in the wash. Those skinned knees and elbows hurt a lot less when the ball ends up firmly secured in your glove.

“We want to play dirty – not play dirty, get dirty,” Griffin said. “We want to leave our feet and play that tough defense.”

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