WELLS — The Morse High softball team may have been unheralded and unknown entering the Class B South softball playoffs, but everyone knows who the Shipbuilders are now.
Freshman Julia Goddard’s bloop RBI single in the sixth inning Saturday lifted fourth-seeded Morse to a 3-2 upset of top-ranked Wells in a Class B South semifinal.
Now Morse, which has won 10 consecutive games to improve to 14-4, will face sixth-seeded Greely – a 1-0 winner over Gray-Gloucester – for the regional championship at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.
The Shipbuilders trailed 2-0 after three innings and stranded runners at third in three of the first four innings, but never faltered in their belief they could win.
“Every time I came back into the dugout they kept telling me, “We got this. We got this,’ ” said Morse Coach Wil Laffely. “You can’t doubt them.”
Not now.
Winning pitcher Dory Kulis tied it with a two-run homer in the fifth, and the Shipbuilders cut down two Wells baserunners in the final two innings.
“We worked hard this year to get here,” said Kulis, who scattered eight hits. “We worked hard last year and didn’t quite get there (losing in the semifinals), but we really worked and came together as a team this year.”
It was another disappointing finish for Wells (12-6), which lost as the No. 1 seed for the second consecutive year.
“It was a great softball game,” said Wells Coach Kevin Fox. “Someone had to win, someone had to lose.”
Samantha Bogue drove in both runs for Wells. She had an RBI single in the first and a run-scoring groundout in the third.
But Wells didn’t score again. And Morse kept the pressure on Wells pitcher Anya Chase, who escaped in each of the first four innings. It took a fine defensive play by Wells second baseman Karissa Kenyon to end the top of the fourth.
With two outs in the top of the fifth, Sierra Wallace drew a walk and Kulis drove the first pitch she saw over the center-field fence.
“It felt really nice,” said Kulis. “I wasn’t quite sure but it felt really good off the bat.”
Morse’s defense stepped up in the bottom of the fifth to keep it tied. Center fielder Micailah Albertson threw Chase out at third to end the inning.
Then Goddard put Morse ahead in the sixth. With runners on first and second and one out, she looped a single to right, the ball tipping off the glove of a diving Kenyon, and Paige Faulkingham scored the go-ahead run.
In the bottom of the sixth, Wells had runners on second and third with one out. Olivia Durfee hit a sharp grounder to Wallace at third. As she threw to first – Durfee beat the throw – Bogue broke for home. First baseman Brook Kulis threw home to Faulkingham, who tagged Bogue out on a close play.
“As always our philosophy is to be aggressive, put pressure on them to make the play,” said Fox. “And they made them.”
Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
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