RICHMOND — The Richmond softball team continued its unchallenged march back to the state championship game Saturday with a one-sided win against fourth-seeded Searsport.

Using a six-run first inning as a springboard, the Bobcats bunted, hit and ran their way to a 16-4 victory, called after Kelsea Anair’s two-out single in the sixth put them up by 12 runs.

Richmond (15-0) advances to Wednesday night’s Western Maine Class D championship game at St. Joseph’s College where it will face the winner of today’s semifinal between Greenville and Vinalhaven. Searsport finishes at 9-9.

A year after winning a state championship, the Bobcats find themselves in a similar position despite the graduation last spring of nine seniors. Five of the six freshmen who joined the team are in the starting lineup, led by pitcher Meranda Martin and catcher Camryn Hurley. Between them, the two scored six runs and accounted for five of the team’s eight hits.

“Unbelievable aren’t they?” Richmond coach Rick Coughlin said. “They’re tough outs. That’s a great combination to have.”

Hurley led off the Richmond half of the first inning with a single off Searsport starter Brittany Ward. Coughlin often has Hurley or Martin, who follows her in the batting order, bunt to utilize their speed and shake up the opposing defense. But this time he let Martin swing away and she responded with a triple over the head of center-fielder Alivia Cross.

“I would rather swing away,” Martin said. “But, hey, whatever gets me on base is fine.” Ward, who beat Buckfield 4-3 on Wednesday, struggled with her control, walking 10 batters, four in the first inning.

“She was really on the other day,” Searsport coach Cynthia Dehm said. “That’s the best we ever played. We had a bit of an early start in this game. She would have liked to warm up a little bit more.”

The early start had little effect on Martin, who set down the first 10 batters who faced. She ran into a little trouble in the fourth when the Vikings collected four hits off her, including three in a row, to make it 9-3.

“They got to me a little bit,” Martin said. “I wasn’t really mixing my pitches up. But one they were getting on me I mixed up my pitches and didn’t throw anything back to back.”

The Bobcats scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of four Searsport errors. The only hits in the inning were bunt singles from Hurley and Martin. They put the game in the sixth when Emily Drouin drew a walk and scored on Martin’s second triple of the game. Martin came home on an Anair bloop single to center. Meghan Ogden singled and doubled for the Vikings while Hurley, Martin and Anair were all repeat hitters for the Bobcats, who made several hard outs.

“We have made a lot of progress,” Martin said. “We have stepped up to the plate and swung away. We worked really well together.”

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638

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Twitter: @GaryHawkinsKJ