NORTH ANSON — Back and forth they went. Five runs in the top of the inning. Five more in the bottom the inning. It was, simply, a slugfest.
Just the way Carrabec likes it.
“We’ve been in these situations before,” left fielder Baylee Atwood said. “We score and then they score. But we always just keep our heads up.”
Atwood went 4 for 4 and the Cobras had 13 hits on the day as they held on for a wild 12-9 victory over Maranacook in a Western C softball preliminary round game Tuesday afternoon.
“That’s the reason why we’re here, is our hitting,” Carrabec coach Craig Knight said. “We don’t pitch like some of the teams in our league pitch, and we know that. We have to go out and just throw strikes, and play defense, and win 12-9. If we’re going to win a game, it’s going to be a marathon. We’re batting like .385 as a team.”
No. 8 Carrabec (7-8) is at No. 1 Madison at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Maranacook, the ninth seed, finished 7-10.
The teams play in different conferences and didn’t face each other in the regular season, and they went after each other aggressively in the first two innings. Still, there was no scoring until the bottom of the third, when Carrabec scored four runs on three singles, a walk, and two Maranacook errors.
Leading 4-0, Carrabec pitcher Jess Vaillancourt lost the strike zone for the only time in the game. Vaillancourt walked five batters in the fourth inning, including two with the bases loaded. The Maranacook players made enough noise for about 500 people during the rally, and the Black Bears went off for five runs and a 5-4 lead.
After the game, Knight said he was close to having shortstop Mickayla Willette come in to pitch during that fourth inning. But after having Willette warm up while Carrabec batted in the bottom of the fourth, Knight stuck with Vaillancourt, and she finished out the rest of the game.
“Jess just doesn’t give up,” Knight said. “The more the other team cheers, the better she likes it. We’ve relied on her senior leadership the last two weeks of the season. It’s not that we don’t have confidence in Mickayla, but we like our chances defensively with Mickayla at short and Jess battling.”
The Cobras started rapping the ball all over the field in the bottom of the fourth. Skyla Murray started things off by hustling a blooper over third base into a leadoff double. By the time the inning was over, Macy Welch had added a two-run single, Liberty Chestnut drilled a two-run double, and Carrabec had seven runs and an 11-5 lead.
Maranacook wasn’t ready to give up, either. Only a great relay from center fielder Paige Chadbourne to Willette to catcher Brooklynne Lewis prevented a big inning for the Black Bears in the fifth, and Maranacook went right back to work in the sixth. Lindsay Jackson kept the inning alive with an RBI infield single, and when Sydney Cameron was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Maranacook was within 12-9 and had the tying run on first. But with the Bears as loud as ever, Vaillancourt ended the inning with a strikeout. She then completed the seventh with two strikeouts and a fly ball to Atwood.
While Maranacook did well to get this far with a young roster, Carrabec prepares for the No. 1 seed in Western C. The Cobras lost 12-6 to Madison in late May.
“Be it good or bad, we’re just gonna go play,” Knight said, “and as you can tell, we’re not gonna give up.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
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