MT. ARARAT BASE RUNNER Kate Guerin slides into home as the ball gets away from Brunswick catcher Olivia Salvail during a KVAC high school softball game at Brunswick on Friday. The visiting Eagles picked up their first win with an 18-2 triumph. Brunswick fell to 0-7.
The Mt. Ararat High School softball squad has been playing solid defense recently and have received some pretty decent pitching.
However, the bats have been slow to come around.
On Friday, the visiting Eagles took the slumber out of their lumber as Devon Hutchins and Kate Guerin powered the Eagles to an 18- 2 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Mercy Rule win over Brunswick.
After the Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, the visitors broke it open in the second with five runs. After Hannah Reis reached on a bunt single and stole second and third, Kaitlyn Cox drove her home with a single. Hutchins went “shopping at the Gap” in right center and ended up on third base with a triple and an RBI.
Guerin doubled to left to plate Hutchins, and Alana Weaver drilled a single to center for an RBI.
The third inning started out routinely, with Brunswick retiring the first two Eagle batters. Then the floodgates opened. Twelve Eagles came to the plate.
The key hits were a pair of Hutchins’ line-drive singles and a Guerin towering, tworun double over. Guerin ended the inning with another blast with the basesloaded that was tracked down by left fielder Mary Sasso with a nice running, backhand catch.
The Eagles added three more runs in the fourth. Weaver and Sara Lamb led off with a singles. Several walks, a wild pitch and a Hannah Reis single created three runs. That brought up Guerin with the bases loaded. She scorched a liner to left that was right at the left fielder to end the inning.
Weaver and Guerin took turns on the mound for the Eagles (two walks, four strikeouts), who improved to 1-5 and host Lewiston today.
Hutchins wound up 4-for-4 with a triple and four RBIs, while Reis had two hits and two RBIs, Guerin a single, double and three RBIs, Weaver and Lamb a single and RBI each, and Cox and Kim Leslie an RBI each.
Brunswick dipped to 0-7 and visits winless Lewiston on Wednesday.
KK Teel singled twice and drove in Olivia Salvail to pace the Dragons’ offense, while Ashley Howe and Sasso each singled. Julia Carpenter scored the other run.
Defensively, Carpenter, Sasso, third baseman Howe and catcher Salvail stood out for the Dragons.
Hannah Escoe and Tami Burgess shared the pitching duties for Brunswick with a strikeout and 10 walks.
“We just couldn’t perform how we have been, and Mt. Ararat just wouldn’t allow us to get back into it,” said Brunswick coach Hugh Dwyer. “I felt coming in that the profiles of the two teams were the same, but their young pitcher took control and they used their bench well.”
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