STANDISH — One run is all you’re going to get. Your margin for error is smaller than a mouse’s thimble. Are you nervous, Emily McKenney?

You’re darn right you’re nervous.

“In the fourth inning, I was like ‘This is going to be a 13-inning game,'” said McKenney, Madison Area Memorial High School’s senior pitcher. “Today, I was definitely more nervous. I usually don’t ever, ever get nervous. Today, I was definitely more nervous than I’ve ever been.”

On Saturday afternoon at Richard W. Bailey Field, on the campus of St. Joseph’s College, McKenney threw a three-hit shutout to help Madison take a 1-0 win over Calais in the Class C state championship softball game. She struck out nine Blue Devils, walked one, and completed a postseason in which she allowed one run in 34 innings. McKenney’s earned run average is so low, it’s Somerset County limbo champ three years running.

“She does it year round. She’s put in the work,” said Madison coach Chris LeBlanc, who knows enough about pitching to know the best thing he can do is keep his nose out of McKenney’s routine.

“I don’t do anything. I didn’t know she was a little tight the last game and wasn’t feeling 100 percent,” LeBlanc said.

Even not feeling her best, McKenney still took a no hitter into the sixth inning of the Western C final against Hall-Dale.

“Last game, the last pitch of the game, I felt like my whole body was shaking. I was like, ‘If this ball’s even close to the plate, it’s going to be a miracle,'” McKenney said. “I think this game was worse. I think my entire body was shaking 10 times more. The last inning was definitely the worst.”

Maybe the shaking helped McKenney’s curveball. Both she and catcher Aly LeBlanc thought the curve was McKenney’s best pitch against Calais.

“She was throwing it more than she’s ever thrown it this season,” Aly LeBlanc said.

“I threw a lot of curves at the beginning of the year, then it kind of got away from me for a bit. I’ve been working on it these last couple of games, and it helped me today,” McKenney said.

More often than not, a state championship game is close. McKenney’s experience in big games paid off. While she lost the no-hit bid when Calais leadoff hitter Madison McVicar singled to open the game, McKenney settled into a groove, at one time retiring 10 Blue Devils in a row. Calais put two runners on base in the top of the fourth inning, but McKenney struck out Paige Gillespie to end the threat. At that point, McKenney had the butterflies in check.

“They went away for a little while, probably the second, third, fourth innings. After we got that one run, they came right back,” McKenney said.

The run came when No. 9 hitter Madeline Wood hit a line drive down the right field line. The ball reached the wall, and Wood hustled for an inside-the-park home run.

There’s your run, McKenney. Your hand is sweating a little more, and the ball feels like a 20-pound weight. You have six outs to get to do the rest.

“You’ve got to have confidence in your teammates, and Madeline Wood did a very, very, very nice job,” McKenney said.

In the top of the seventh, after working a three ball count to Gillespie, the Bulldogs infield went to the circle en masse to offer support to McKenney. She politely shooed them away. Nerves can’t overcome skill and confidence.

“She didn’t want any part of it. She knows what she needs to do and nobody else is going to understand that,” coach LeBlanc said.

McKenney struck out the last two Blue Devils looking to end the game. Madison had it’s first softball title since 1997.

The nerves went away, and the only shaking was from joy.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

[email protected]

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM