WATERBORO — Gorham senior pitcher Grace McGouldrick has been known to take over a softball game – both with her arm and with a bat in her hands.

Friday afternoon, it was another senior pitcher who stole the show. Massabesic’s Cayleigh Morris allowed just six hits and drove home the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Mustangs rallied for a 2-1 win over Gorham.

“That was just a great game of softball right there,” said Massabesic Coach Kevin Tutt.

The Mustangs managed only two singles off McGouldrick through five innings, but they came up with a couple clutch hits in the sixth.

With one out, Lacey Bean worked a walk and stole second. Lauren Kiss then drove a pitch up the middle for a double that tied the game.

Morris came to the plate with a chance to at least move Kiss into scoring position, but she did more than that, smashing a ball all the way to the fence.

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“I was honestly just thinking to myself, ‘I’ve got to keep it together, keep calm and just pace myself with her windup and just go with it when I see something I like,'” said Morris.

Morris worked around a two-out double by Tatyanna Biamby in the seventh, ending the game with one of her seven strikeouts.

Tutt knew it was going to be hard to score against McGouldrick, who finished with 11 strikeouts.

“Grace McGouldrick, first and foremost, is just a class-act kid. She has a tremendous mound presence and is the complete leader of that team … I have a lot of respect for that kid,” said Tutt. “We knew it was going to be tough. We talked about trying to get barrels on it and it’s pretty tough when (McGouldrick is) throwing as well as she did. We had to be patient and had to wait it out. Our defense had to play as good as we humanly can and then we had to take advantage.”

Morris enjoyed the battle with McGouldrick.

“It was extremely intense. She’s a very respectable player and it’s just crazy, especially being able to hit off of her,” said Morris.

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Gorham assistant coach Rebecca Manson is hoping the Rams (12-3) will learn from the loss as they prepare for the playoffs.

“We knew this was going to be a one-run game. We made a couple mistakes on the bases and we’ll learn from that, and we’re going to come back fresh (for the playoffs),” said Manson.

The Mustangs ended their regular season at 12-4 despite losing their first two games. Tutt believes his players’ attitude and team-first mentality are big reasons why Marshwood is in line to be a top five seed in the Class A South playoffs.

“We just have a bunch of kids that work with the premise of ‘we before me.’ They put everybody’s intentions before their own, and it’s a process that hasn’t happened overnight. It’s been a long time coming and I’m grateful for this group of seniors … ,” said Tutt. “There’s a no-quit attitude with these kids and they just fight, fight, fight, and that’s all we can ever ask for.”


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