SOUTH PORTLAND—For a fleeting moment Saturday morning at Wainwright Farms, Addison DeRoche appeared mortal.

But that moment passed and DeRoche and her Cheverus softball teammates went on to produce another masterful, dominant performance in a battle of unbeaten teams at South Portland.

DeRoche, the Stags’ freshman pitching phenom, demonstrated her ability to produce at the plate by lining a bases loaded double in the top of the first inning to produce the only runs she would need, then junior catcher Bella Napolitano Aberle made it 4-0 with a two-out, two-run single.

DeRoche then surrendered a leadoff triple to Ella Nickerson, the Red Riots’ talented senior shortstop, to start the bottom half, but that would prove to be her lone blemish, as she proceeded to strike out the side and leave Nickerson standing at third base.

DeRoche singled in another run in the top of the second, then Cheverus completely broke the game open with four unearned runs in the fourth before adding four more in the fifth and when DeRoche struck out the side in the bottom half, another decisive mercy-rule victory was in the books, this time by a score of 13-0.

DeRoche allowed just one hit, struck out 14 and was even more impressive with the bat in her hands, collecting four hits and driving in five runs as the Stags improved to 7-0 and in the process, dropped the Red Riots to 7-1.

“All week, I’ve been waiting for today,” said DeRoche. “South Portland’s a great team. This is what I live for and it was great to be in this environment.”

Quick knockout

Cheverus, under new coach John Eisenhart, shot out of the gate, rolling to decisive wins over host Sanford (25-0, in three-innings), visiting Scarborough (6-0), visiting Kennebunk (10-0, in six-innings), visiting Marshwood (10-0, in five-innings), visiting Bonny Eagle (7-3) and host Noble (16-0, in three-innings).

South Portland was a co-op team with Westbrook last season, but is back to being a stand-alone program this spring, started with a 6-5 home win over Bonny Eagle, then rolled past host Noble (25-0, in three-innings) and visiting Deering (22-2, in three-innings) before knocking off host Marshwood (11-7), host Thornton Academy (13-4), visiting Gorham (2-1) and host Biddeford (10-7).

Last year, the Red Riots beat the visiting Stags, 15-5, in five-innings.

Saturday, on an overcast and dry 52-degree day, Cheverus jumped ahead before an out was even recorded.

South Portland junior pitcher Baylie Littlefield delivers a pitch to Cheverus junior Delia Tremble early in the Stags’ 13-0, five-inning victory Saturday. Hoffer photos.

Senior shortstop Kelsey Cassidy led off against South Portland junior starting pitcher Baylie Littlefield and drew a five-pitch walk. Junior rightfielder Delia Tremble then laced a single to center and sophomore centerfielder Hailey Lamontagne fouled off several 3-2 pitches before drawing a walk to load the bases for DeRoche.

DeRoche worked the count to her favor, 3-and-1, then ripped a deep drive down the leftfield line. The ball stayed in the park, but Cassidy and Tremble easily scored and Lamontagne stopped at third, while DeRoche raced into second and celebrated her key hit with a fist pump.

“Last night, I worked in the cage and focused on getting the barrel to the ball, so today, I just looked for a strike and tried to barrel the ball,” DeRoche said.

Sophomore second baseman Anna Goodman drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to reload the bases, but Littlefield appeared poised to avoid further damage, when she got junior first baseman Ashley Connor to ground back to the mound, where Littlefield threw home for the force out, then Littlefield got sophomore third baseman Anna Kennedy-Jensen to ground into a third-to-home force out.

But Naplitano Aberle came through in the clutch, lining the first pitch she saw into centerfield for a two-run single to bring home Lamontagne and senior courtesy runner Mikayla Talbot.

“I’ve been a little bit of a slump, so I was just thinking, ‘See-ball, hit-ball’ and that’s what I did,” Napolitano Aberle said. “It felt so good to finally get a hit. Our lineup is strong from the top to the bottom. There are no weak links.”

“Bella’s hit was huge,” Eisenhart said. “So much credit to her. She works so hard on getting her swing right. She’s also a great competitor. I was really happy for her.”

Sophomore designated player Sadie Collins struck out swinging, but the damage was done.

Nickerson then shocked DeRoche and the Cheverus fans on hand by leading off the bottom half by driving the ball the other way, down the rightfield line, where it dropped and got behind Tremble. Nickerson raced all the way to third, but was held there with a triple.

South Portland senior Ella Nickerson lines a leadoff triple off Cheverus freshman Addison DeRoche leading off the bottom of the first.

That proved to be South Portland’s lone highlight, as DeRoche, after giving up her first extra base hit of the season, settled in and caught senior second baseman Phoebe Dodge looking at strike three, before firing strike three past freshman centerfielder Annie Soucy and fanning junior Andrew DiMauro as well to escape the jam.

“I think (allowing that hit) definitely fired me up,” DeRoche said. “I didn’t want to let a run score, so I just gave my all on every pitch and tried to stay consistent and throw the ball hard. I worked on spotting my rise (ball).”

“It all starts with Addison,” said Eisenhart. “She’s such a great competitor and she was ready to pitch today. She gave up the triple, then struck out the side. That fired her up.”

Littlefield got Cassidy to fly out to center on the first pitch in the top of the second, then induced a pop-out to first off the bat of Tremble, but Lamontagne sparked a two-out uprising with a double to right-center and DeRoche delivered the run with a single to left. Goodman flew out to center, but the lead was 5-0.

DeRoche continued to overpower the Red Riots in the bottom half, fanning freshman first baseman Rachel DiMauro on a 3-2 pitch leading off, then fanning senior catcher Chloe Whitten before getting freshman rightfielder Jillian Edgar to watch strike three.

Littlefield had her best inning in the top of the third, getting Connor to ground out to short, Kennedy-Jensen to fly out to right and Napolitano Aberle to ground out to third.

Cheverus freshman ace Addison DeRoche fires a strike.

In the bottom half, DeRoche fanned Littlefield, freshman designated player Sadie Soucy and Nickerson to make it nine straight Ks.

The Stags returned to their scoring ways in the top of the fourth.

Collins led off with a grounder to second and she reached on an error by Dodge. After Cassidy singled to right to put runners at first and second, Tremble lined a shot to center, but Annie Soucy went back and made a nice catch for the first out. Lamontagne then ripped a drive to center. Soucy got to the ball, but dropped it and on the play, both Collins and Cassidy scored with Lamontagne taking third. DeRoche then produced her third straight run-scoring hit, this one a single to center, to make it 8-0. Talbot came on to run and was thrown out trying to steal, but Goodman walked on a 3-2 pitch, then moved to second on a wild pitch before Connor doubled down the leftfield line to bring her home with the ninth run.

That was it for Littlefield’s day on the mound, as she was replaced by Andrea DiMauro, who got Kennedy-Jensen to pop out to second to end the inning.

Dodge then made contact leading off the bottom half, but her half-swing only produced a harmless pop out to third. DeRoche then returned to her strikeout ways, fanning Annie Soucy and Andrea DiMauro.

Needing just one run in the top of the fifth to induce the mercy rule, Cheverus instead pushed across four.

Napolitano Aberle reached on an error by Dodge at second and after Kelly flew out to right and Cassidy bounced out to first, Tremble kept the inning alive by reaching on an infield single to deep short. That brought up Lamontagne, who pounded the ball again, lining a double to left-center, bringing home freshman courtesy runner Madalyn Zdunczyk and Tremble. DeRoche then produced her fourth hit, a bloop single over the shortstop, to drive in her fifth run, Lamontagne, who came around to score. After Talbot ran for DeRoche, Goodman walked before Connor singled to right to score Talbot. Kennedy-Jensen flew out to right, but the lead was an insurmountable 13-0.

DeRoche then made it official in the bottom half with more strikeout mastery, catching Rachel DiMauro and Whitten both looking at strike three before fanning Edgar to end it in a tidy 1 hour, 28 minutes.

“Everybody contributed and gave us momentum today,” DeRoche said.

“There are no easy outs in our lineup,” Eisenhart said. “We didn’t play well against Bonny Eagle earlier this week, so we had reset things and get the bats going again. Against Noble yesterday, we sat four starters and we had Mikayla Talbot go 3-for-3 with three RBIs. I have confidence in every kid on this team. What I really love is that they’re good to each other and they really care for each other. That’s important.

“We have a lot of respect for South Portland and every team in this league. We just have to keep bringing it every day. If we don’t, we won’t be as good a team.”

DeRoche was the winning pitcher for the fourth time this spring, throwing five shutout innings, allowing just one hit, walking none and fanning 14.

“We know Addison’s phenomenal,” said Red Riots coach Drew DiMauro. “She’s a competitor. Nothing’s going to rattle her. We have all the respect for her. We know she’s seasoned for this type of event. We tried to get the girls to time the fastball and I don’t think our timing was horrible, but she moves the ball so well. Girls were coming back with their eyes crossed. (Ella’s hit) might have awakened a sleeping giant. Hats off to her for pitching a gem. She’s a great hitter too and she’s probably a good base runner too, but we didn’t get to see that.”

Offensively, DeRoche had four hits and five RBI, while Lamontagne added two hits, two RBI and scored four runs.

Tremble also had two hits and scored two runs.

Cassidy and Talbot both scored twice, while Collins, Goodman and Zdunczyk touched home plate once apiece.

Connor had two RBI, as did Napolitano Aberle, who also had a strong game behind the plate.

“I got thrown in to catch for Addie a couple games ago and her movement is insane,” said Napolitano Aberle. “She’s hard to catch, but we’ve played together before and we have a good connection. It’s so much fun to catch for her. Some of her pitches, you really have to know Addie to know where the ball is going to go.”

“The depth of our team is our ability to have a next-girl-up mentality,” Eisenhart said. “Bella’s a great catcher and was the starter the past two seasons. The only reason we had Anna (Kennedy-Jensen) catching early was because Bella was hurt. Then, Anna got hurt and Bella stepped right in without a lot of preparation. She’s done a great job. Addison’s comfortable throwing to her.”

Cheverus left six runners on base.

Nickerson had South Portland’s lone hit and was its only base runner.

Littlefield took the loss, giving up nine runs (five earned) on eight hits in 3.2 innings. Littlefield walked four and struck out one.

Andrew DiMauro surrendered four unearned runs on four hits in 1.1 inning of f relief. DiMauro walked one and didn’t strike out a batter.

“(Cheverus is) strong 1 through 9 and probably 1 through 15, to be honest,” Drew DiMauro said. “They’re a great, talented team and John’s done a great job with them. They seem to jell together and play for each other. This wasn’t the ideal game we wanted to play with them. We wanted it to be a lot tighter, but we shot ourselves in the foot. We can clean that up.”

Right back at it

South Portland looks to get back on track Monday when Portland pays a visit. After going to Falmouth Wednesday, the Red Riots are home versus Westbrook Friday.

“Our girls will bounce back,” Drew DiMauro said. “It’s a 16-game season, not a one-game season. We get another D1 pitcher (Portland’s Sadie Armstrong) on Monday.”

Cheverus is home with Deering Monday, visits Thornton Academy Wednesday and should be tested Friday by visiting Gorham, but with this team, who knows if it will get a serious challenge before going to reigning state champion Windham May 24.

“It’s such a fun team to be on,” said Napolitano Aberle. “We’re always hyped in the dugout. We all love each other. We’re waiting for a close game. I think we’re all ready for it.”

“We’ll keep working in practice to stay on top of our game,” said DeRoche. “We’ll just keep battling every day. It’s so fun being with this team.”

“Windham is still the measuring stick,” Eisenhart added. “We’ll find out how good we are when we play them. I’m looking forward to having a close game and seeing how we compete.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net.