KENNEBUNK — Julia Pike was in a position she’s rarely in, down three runs early and needing her Kennebunk/Sanford softball team to rally behind her.
Her teammates delivered. Pike handled the rest.
Pike struck out 13 while allowing only three hits, senior catcher Emily Hutchins keyed a four-run third inning with a two-run single, and third-seeded Kennebunk/Sanford defeated No. 6 Scarborough, 4-3, in a Class A South quarterfinal Thursday.
“I’m looking at the positives. We did a lot of things well,” Pike said. “We came back from a 3-0 (deficit). We did a lot of things well to do that.”
It wasn’t a clean game from start to finish. It didn’t need to be.
“I think it’s a better win than a 10-0 win, honestly,” said Hutchins, nicknamed “Scrappy” by her teammates. “It gives us a little confidence boost. Like, ‘Hey, this is what we’re made of, and we know we can push through.'”
Scarborough Coach Liz Winslow couldn’t have drawn up a better start for her team, but the Red Storm (10-7) fell short in their upset bid.
“Tough one. We came out firing, we came out with energy,” said Winslow, who finished her first season as Scarborough’s head coach after 12 years as a varsity assistant. “They had the one inning. Little squibbers finding the gaps. Shoot.”
The Red Storm jumped ahead 3-0 in the first innings, scoring two runs on errors and a third on Angelina Pizzella’s RBI single.
Kennebunk/Sanford pulled together after that inning, but the message wasn’t alarm or panic.
“When they came off the field, it was ‘Hey, we put ourselves in a hole, but we’ve got a lot of softball left,'” Kennebunk/Sanford Coach Eddie Pike said. “I think the girls battled through. It’s not easy.”
Kennebunk/Sanford (15-2) made its move in the third. Madi Sheppard and Sky Holder led off with singles, and after a strikeout, Julia Pike singled to load the bases. That brought up Hutchins, who lined a single to left that drove in Sheppard and Holder. Singles by Hannah Mueller and Talia Kellum brought in Pike and Hutchins with the tying and go-ahead runs.
“(We thought) hey, we need to get our act together because we have plenty of time,” Hutchins said. “We still have time to win this, so let’s get our stuff together.”
Pike didn’t let the lead slip away. She had four strikeouts through the first three innings but then found another gear, striking out nine of the 12 batters she faced in four perfect innings.
“My team was in it when they were batting, so I knew I had to pull it together myself,” Pike said. “It’s not just my game, it’s the entire team’s game.”
Winslow said her team was frustrated by the decisive rally. With the exception of Hutchins’s hit, the others were grounders past diving infielders.
“That’s frustrating to see,” said Winslow. “And we did get a little bit back on our heels. We’re young; we’ve got eight sophomores. We’re going to come back tough.”
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