STANDISH — When it comes to Western Class D softball, there are few things more dangerous than giving Richmond extra outs.

The Bobcats took advantage of six Searsport errors and scored eight unearned runs to secure their fifth straight Western D championship thanks to a 12-0 win in five innings over the Vikings on Tuesday at Richard W. Bailey Field on the campus of St. Joseph’s College.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan Members of the Richmond softball team celebrate Tuesday afternoon after winning their sixth straight Western D championship on Bailey Field at St. Joseph's College in Standish.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan Members of the Richmond softball team mob Kelsea Anair (wearing helmet) after she scored the team's 12th and final run to end the Western D title game against Searsport on Tuesday at St Joseph's College. Kelsie Obie delivered the game-winning hit in the fifth inning for Richmond, which prevailed 12-0 to win its sixth consecutive regional crown.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan Richmond first baseman Kelsie Obie stretches to record the out as Searsport hitter Brittany Ward gets to the bag during Western D regional final Tuesday.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan Richmond pitcher Meranda Martin throws a pitch during the Western D final Tuesday against Searsport at Bailey Field at St. Joseph's College in Standish.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan Members of the Richmond softball team celebrate Tuesday at St. Joseph's College after winning their sixth straight Western D championship, a 12-0 victory over Searsport.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan The Richmond softball team celebrates its sixth straight Western D title Tuesday at St. Joseph's College.

“You put the ball in play and make them play it,” Richmond coach Rick Coughlin said. “For us, they couldn’t do it. They had difficulty playing the ball hit to them, and so we just took advantage of it.”

Fittingly enough, it was Richmond’s lone senior starter, Kelsie Obi, that ended the game with her bloop single over Searsport’s second baseman to score Kelsea Anair from third in the bottom of the fifth.

Obi is the lone player on the team to have lost a game in her career, a 4-2 defeat against Penobscot Valley in the 2012 Class D championship. That was also the last time the Bobcats have lost a contest as they have now won 51 straight.

“It’s not that we expect (to win), it’s that we come ready to play every time,” Obi said. “Yes, we know we’ve beaten a team, but that team could have a good day and we can have an off day.”

The Bobcats may not have taken the Vikings lightly Tuesday, yet by the third inning their greatest opposition may have been the weather.

Richmond jumped ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first when Meranda Martin scored from second on a single from Sydney Tilton, and the following inning Searsport committed five errors — all with two outs — to allow the Bobcats to score six runs. Camryn Hurley, Martin, Anair, Tilton, Obi and Kalah Patterson each came home to push the lead to 7-0.

Soon after the steady rain that had been intermittent throughout the contest began to intensify, though, and by the fourth inning the precipitation was as steady as it had been at any point in the contest.

“We were all nervous that the thunderstorm was coming, so we were like trying to rush to try and get it done because we wanted to play,” Obi said. “We came ready to play, we came with our hearts in it.”

Richmond tacked on two more in the bottom of the fourth without a hit, as Tilton and Obi — who reached base on a hit by pitch and walk respectively — scored thanks to a series of passed balls.

Martin, the Bobcats’ starting pitcher, set the Vikings down in order in the top of the fifth and even as the rain began to stop Richmond did not take any chances.

Hurley opened the scoring in the bottom of the fifth with a one-out single, and scored four pitches later on a double from Martin. Anair then singled and took second on defensive indifference to make it second and third, while Tilton followed with an RBI single to make it 11-0.

Searsport then brought its infield in to try to prevent the game-winning run from scoring, but it was to no avail thanks to Obi’s bloop single.

“We settled in pretty good once we got those (six) runs in the second inning,” said Martin, who along with Tilton and Obi reached base in all four of her at-bats. “We settled right in and played hard and played our game. We were all confident the whole game.”

Martin admitted after the game it was a little difficult to get a good grip on the ball due to the weather. For the game she allowed five hits and four walks while striking out six.

“It was terrible. A couple innings it started downpouring and I thought, ‘oh, jeez,'” Martin said. “I just kept getting a clean, dry ball. Like we said before the game, ‘if the ball gets wet, get another one.'”

Martin dealt with multiple baserunners in every inning but the fifth, yet in each instance a strikeout or fine defensive play from her infield got her out of the inning. The Bobcats did not commit an error in the game.

“That’s how we play,” Martin said. “We don’t like to have any errors. We like to go out there and go to them and play our game, come out hard and aggressive and that’s what we did.”

Richmond will look to play its game one more time this season, as it will face Stearns Saturday at 4 p.m. at St. Joe’s for the Class D championship.

Evan Crawley – 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley

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