READFIELD — In a game dominated by pitching, both the Maranacook and Gardiner softball teams put together one big inning Tuesday.

Maranacook’s inning was one run better, though, as the Black Bears avenged a previous loss to the Tigers with a 4-3 victory. Maranacook is 11-4 in Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B action while Gardiner falls to 8-6.

Maranacook senior Sarah Boynton and Gardiner sophomore Brittany Rollins each pitched six shutout innings. Boynton allowed three hits, struck out 11 and hit two batters while Rollins gave up five hits, walked two and fanned eight.

“The first game we just made a lot of errors,” Boynton said of her team’s 11-7 loss to the Tigers in the season opener. “Plus we swung our bats today a lot more than the first game.”

Errors did play a factor, though. Gardiner committed two in Maranacook’s four-run third, a rally that also included two bunts, a pair of bloop hits and a double from Jessie Smith. Freshman Elise Linton, hitting in the No. 9 spot, got the inning started with a one-out blooper over the head of Gardiner second baseman Lily Chepke.

“Since I put her in, I think she’s nine or 10 for 13,” Maranacook coach Don Beckwith said. “She’s doing well at the plate.”

Linton moved to third when Smith lined a ball that tipped off Taylor Banister’s glove at third down the left field line. Smith scored on Ashley Belanger’s bunt, just beating the throw to the plate, and two runs followed on infield errors. Kaitlyn Chick, one of three freshmen in the lineup, capped the inning with an RBI single to left.

The Tigers scored three in the top of the fifth inning when Boynton sandwiched two hit batters around a single to Stephanie Plourde to load the bases. Jenna Moore scored the first run when she beat a play at the plate on a short passed ball. Chepke brought home the second run with a sacrifice fly and the third scored on an error. Boynton escaped the inning by getting Banister, the No. 3 hitter, to pop out to second base.

“I think I got over-cocky because we were up,” Boynton said of the inning.

Added Gardiner coach Ginger Shaw: “We battled pretty well. That first meeting we had was just a slugfest. We were mentally more ready, we were pretty hungry. Today, we didn’t show we were quite as hungry for the full seven innings.”

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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