Auburn, ME – CMCC Softball soldiered through a steady dose of rain on Tuesday night, dropping their doubleheader to rival SMCC. The Seawolves handled the wet conditions to take game one 20-0 before finishing off the sweep with an 18-7 victory.
Game One, 20-0 L
The Mustangs struggled to find rhythm against starting pitcher Sarah Wilkins. The freshman from Red Deer, Alberta threw a perfect game against CMCC, picking up the win in five innings. The Seawolves gave her some run support early, scoring six times in the first inning.
Delanie Perry whacked a two-run triple to the center field fence. Emily Hutchins brought her home with a single, and scored later herself when the ball got away from catcher Madison Anderson. Cameron Crerar reached safely for the second time in the inning, but this time drove in two runs with a double into left for a 6-0 lead.
Wilkins struck out the side in the bottom of the first to record three of her 11 strikeouts for the game. Southern Maine added two more runs in the second on a Sloan Scotvold double. The visitors led 12-0 after the third courtesy of a parade of doubles off relief pitcher Olivia Gallan. The CMCC captain and usual center fielder stepped into the circle after starter Lauryn Wood, just back from injury this week, felt a twinge in her shoulder and was ruled out for the remainder of the day.
SMCC added seven runs in the fourth and one more in the fifth to finish things off with an even 20. Every player with a plate appearance reached safely at least once, and the Seawolves tallied 15 extra-base hits. Wilkins delivered one final strikeout, getting Anderson looking to end the game, before being mobbed by her teammates.
Game Two, 18-7 L
Southern Maine picked up where they left off in the first inning of game two. The visitors took a 3-0 lead with Olivia Hill, Hutchins, and Wilkins producing the RBIs. However, they would not have the same success keeping the Mustangs' bats silent.
Olivia Gallan answered with a lead-off single into left field on the first pitch she saw from starter Scotvold. Autumn Peterson followed that up with a single of her own, and Sam Withee brought them both around to score with a double to left. McKenna Ridlon then delivered a powerful shot into right field that reached the fence on one bounce. The junior from Hartford, ME raced around to third for an RBI triple to tie the game at 3-3.
Autumn Peterson retired the side in order in the top of the second, but Scotvold prevented CMCC from picking up its first lead of the day when she got Miah Gallan to pop out to short.
The wet weather picked up as the game went along, to rain on the Mustangs' parade. Wilkins drove in one run in the third and scored herself on Taylor Swift's two-RBI double. The Seawolves broke it open with five more runs in the fourth to take an 11-3 lead. Peterson struggled to get a grip on the ball in the downpour and was relieved with arm soreness herself, bringing Gallan in for her second relief appearance of the day. Wilkins did the most damage once again, hitting a bases-loaded triple before scoring on a wild pitch.
Central Maine did pull four runs back in the bottom half of the inning. Alivia Field and Keira Greene both scored on wild pitches on the wet turf. Withee raked a ground ball up the middle to bring home two runs, with Emily Libby and Gallan scoring.
Both teams made the decision to finish off the game despite the heavy rain, negating the need to finish the conference matchup later on with limited open dates remaining in the regular season. SMCC plated seven more runs in the fifth before Wilkins, on in relief, finished off the game.
The losses drop the Mustangs to 2-2 in conference play this season. The two sides meet one more time this year for a doubleheader, playing next week on Wednesday, April 23rd in South Portland.
