WELLS — Wells bunted, ran and slugged its way into uncharted territory Saturday.

The No. 3 Warriors (15-3) beat the surprise team of the Western Class B softball tournment, No. 10 Fryeburg Academy, posting a 14-4 victory to earn the school’s first trip to a regional final.

Now they want more.

“It feels really good, especially to be pitching for the first team to make (it to a regional final),” said senior pitcher Lauren Bame, who hit a three-run homer. “We’ve got two more games, we keep saying. We just keep counting down.”

Actually, Wells is only assured of one more game, a 3:30 p.m. regional final Wednesday at St. Joseph’s College against No. 1 Cape Elizabeth (17-0).

But Wells Coach Kevin Fox said he’s glad his team is planning to go all the way – and is willing to make the aggressive plays on the base paths that proved to be Fryeburg’s undoing in a seven-run fourth inning and a five-run fifth.

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“I said the game plan today was I just wanted great players to make great plays,” Fox said. “They know what needs to get done. They’re playing with the urgency they need to play with.”

The game was tied 2-2 when Jordan Agger (3 for 4) led off the bottom of the fourth with a single. Meg Young dropped down a bunt, and trouble started when Fryeburg pitcher Jeannette White tried to force Agger at second, instead getting no outs. Christina Leblanc (2 for 3, 2 RBI) followed with a single to right to drive home Agger.

Young scored on another bunt, by Ali Duplisea, which also wasn’t turned into an out. Kaitlyn Tufts walked to load the bases, and Maddie Taylor’s single up the middle brought in two runs to push the lead to 6-2.

Then craziness ensued when Stephanie Woods – who had already bunted twice – turned a slap hit at the second baseman into a four-error, three-run tour around the bases. It included a dropped tag at home and then an errant throw into left field that allowed Woods to score.

“It was super exciting,” Woods said. “It got my blood flowing. We have this motto that we can never be satisfied. We go one game at a time and we have all the confidence in the world to build a team together and go after anybody.”

Fryeburg (9-10) was coming off two playoff wins over higher-seeded opponents, including a 9-1 quarterfinal victory at Lincoln Academy.

“They played two superb games in a row,” Fryeburg Coach Stephen Woodcock said of his players. “Unfortunately today was not characteristic of the way they’d played.”


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