YORK — York High’s softball team has shown it can bounce back – from a loss and a deficit.
On Wednesday, the Wildcats trailed 2-1 against defending Class B state champion Cape Elizabeth before they erupted for eight runs in the sixth inning, earning a 9-2 win.
“In the sixth inning, we realized we needed to get our energy up to get hits, so that really helped us,” said sophomore McKayla Kortes, who led off the rally with a line-drive single to left and then drove in the final two runs with another single.
Kortes, who went 3 for 4 and is batting over .600 with five home runs, also picked up the win in relief, working three hitless innings. She and starter Maddy Raymond combined on a one-hitter.
It was the third win in five days for York (14-1), after an extra-inning loss at Lake Region. York knocked off Brunswick, the last unbeaten team in Class A, 1-0 on Saturday and then handed Class B rival Poland its first loss, 12-3, on Monday.
“We had a tough loss at Lake Region. I said this could be a situation where our team could go either way,” said York Coach Kevin Giannino. “We can bounce back from this or you can let it affect you the next week. Sure enough, they’ve won three and they’ve bounced back. Like I knew they would.”
Cape Elizabeth (8-5) starter Kathryn Clay shut out York’s potent offense through four innings, working around a pair of hits in both the second and fourth.
Cape took a 2-0 lead and in the fifth without a hit.
Raymond, who pitched the shutout against Brunswick, walked Lauren Steinberg and Elsie Maxwell, Cape’s No. 7 and 8 hitters, to start the fifth. Kortes relieved, but Cape scored its runs on an outfield error and a groundout.
York got a run back in the fifth on singles by Emily Estes and Jill Carr, with Estes scoring on an outfield throwing error. But with a runner at second and no outs, Clay got out of further damage.
In the sixth, the York bats connected repeatedly.
Kortes and Raymond started the inning with sharp singles. Maggie Hanlon tried once to move them over with a bunt, then grounded an RBI single up the middle to tie the game.
“That (bunt) didn’t go as planned, and then coach was just, ‘you can recover. Just swing the bat,'” Hanlon said. “Sometimes it takes us longer to rally, but there’s usually one or two innings when we can rally and get a lot of runs in. We were all expecting that to come. It just took us awhile.”
Ella Moon hit a grounder toward first. Instead of taking an out, Cape tried to throw out Raymond at the plate but was unsuccessful. Before the inning was over, Carlie Welch, Alexis Osterhuis (two RBI) and Kortes (two RBI) produced run-scoring singles, and an infield error added to the damage.
“This was a close one. Kudos to (York). They’re a good hitting team,” said Cape Elizabeth Coach Kristen Duross. “That’s what happens when you give them extra outs.”
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