STANDISH – Deer Isle-Stonington finished with 16 hits, and depending on which team you were rooting for, those hits were either ridiculously lucky or extremely well-placed. Either way, the Mariners came from behind and took a 7-2 victory in the Class D softball state championship game Saturday.

“Right over the pitcher’s head, right over the third baseman’s head — you can’t beat that,” Richmond Coach Rick Coughlin said. “I was going to ask the ump to check the ball and see if it had eyes in it. They were in a hitting mode. Everything they swung at was going somewhere.”

Additional Photos

Richmond catcher Lindsy Hoopingarner, right, holds onto the ball as she collides with Deer Isle-Stonington's Chelsea Brown during the Class D state championship game Saturday. The Mariners won the game, 7-2. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

The way Sydney Ouzts pitched, the Mariners didn’t need a lot of luck anyway. Ouzts, who walked five and gave up 11 hits in losing last year’s state final to Richmond, was much more stingy Saturday. She pitched a five-hitter, didn’t walk anybody, struck out 11 and retired the last 11 batters she faced.

“She was on a mission,” said Deer Isle-Stonington Coach Terry Siebert, whose team finished 17-2. “She actually had a little talk with the team right before we got started about how it felt last year to be the loser and sit and watch them raise the trophy. This year she wanted to make sure that it was us.”

Richmond (17-1) was in control for the first half of the game, capitalizing on Deer Isle-Stonington’s base-running mistakes. In the third inning, the Mariners had back-to-back singles by Emily Cormier and Holly Brewer with one out, but the rally was snuffed out when Cormier was called out for interfering with Richmond shortstop Danica Hurley on a grounder up the middle.

In the fourth inning, Chelsea Brown and Abby Grindle singled to open the inning, but both were thrown out at the plate on ill-advised dashes for home on short grounders. On the play that retired Brown, Richmond pitcher Jamie Plummer fielded a grounder, hesitated and threw home just in time to get Brown, who barreled into catcher Lindsy Hoopingarner at the plate. Hoopingarner went down but held onto the ball.

Richmond scored a run in the first on two bunt singles, a double steal and an error, then made it 2-0 in the third when Hurley singled and came home on a single by Hoopingarner.

Things changed in the fifth. With one out, Cormier reached first on a bloop single just over Plummer’s head. Brewer followed with a single just inside the left-field line. Three more hits, including an infield single by Ouzts, made it 3-2 Deer Isle-Stonington.

After Heidi Brewer led off the sixth with a grounder in the hole that barely eluded Hurley at short, Coughlin replaced Plummer with Leandra Martin. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, Martin’s luck was the same as Plummer’s.

Cormier got a single on a popup that Hurley barely missed after a long run, and Holly Brewer singled on a soft liner that died in front of second baseman Tara Hurley. When Janelle Ciamei followed with a booming two-run double to deep left, it was 5-2 and the game was as good as over.

Ouzts was in a groove by that point. After Payton Johnson singled with one out in the bottom of the fourth, Richmond did not have a base runner.

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