NORTH ANSON — In honor of its first playoff appearance since 2009, the Carrabec softball team had T-shirts made up with the words “DON’T GO AWAY” covering the back.

On Monday afternoon, there was never a more appropriate slogan.

In a game that took more than 21/2 hours and included 20 walks and 15 errors, Carrabec scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning without a hit for a 15-13 victory over Wiscasset in a Western Class C preliminary-round game.

“That’s what we’ve talked about: Don’t go away,” Carrabec Coach Craig Knight said. “I told the kids, as long as teams let us hang around late in the game, we’ll find a way to win. Today, we were very opportunistic.”

No. 7 Carrabec (6-9) will play at No. 2 Dirigo in the quarterfinals.

None of the Cobras had played in a playoff game before Monday, and their emotion was on display from the start. When Wiscasset’s Heidi Pinkham slipped rounding third base and was tagged out by Ashlee Knight to end the top of the first inning, Knight spiked the ball and hugged third baseman Libby Chestnut.

Pinkham drove in four runs in her next two at-bats. The Wolverines (3-14) scored four runs in the second and seven in the third, which helped offset Carrabec’s six-run second inning.

Carrabec’s Jessica Vaillancourt settled things down. After relieving in the third, she allowed two runs over the final 41/3 innings.

The Cobras chipped away with two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth, but trailed 13-9 entering the bottom of the sixth. With one out, the Cobras drew four consecutive walks. However, it was a walk that really wasn’t that showed this was Carrabec’s day.

With Wiscasset leading 13-11 and the bases loaded with one out, Carrabec’s Paige Chadbourne was batting with a 2-2 count. The next pitch was a ball, but Chadbourne thought it was ball four and tossed her bat and ran to first. All three runners advanced as well, so the play was a triple steal, with Kilee Nile scoring from third to make it a one-run game.

“I saw my teammate go to first,” Nile said, “and I was like, ‘Oh, now we’ve got a run that was off of a walk. I guess I’ll just go.’ The catcher was looking at me crazy. She was like, ‘What are you doing?’ So she followed me to the dugout, and I go, ‘I touched the base. Tag me.’ “

Chadbourne walked on the next pitch, and then Knight drove in the tying run when she was hit in the leg.

Courtney Lancaster got the winning RBI when her sacrifice fly scored Brooklynne Lewis.

Lewis, Carrabec’s catcher, missed most of last season after tearing up her knee. She drove in four runs with a bases-loaded triple and a sacrifice fly, and also scored after hitting a double in the fifth.

“I don’t even have words to describe it,” Lewis said. “I’m so happy.”

 

MT. ABRAM 8, SACOPEE VALLEY 6: Jill Howard paced eighth-seeded Mt. Abram’s offense with three hits and two RBI for a victory over ninth-seeded Sacopee Valley in a Western Class C preliminary-round game at Salem.

The Roadrunners started strong, leading 8-1 after three innings. Winning pitcher Alix Howard scattered six hits and allowed two earned runs.

For the Hawks, Madison Schaubut had two hits and an RBI and Dakota Miner had two hits and scored twice.

 

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