STANDISH — It took the top-seeded Madison Bulldogs a little while to get the bats going in their regional championship softball game Tuesday night with an upstart sixth seed in Lisbon. But once they did, the Greyhounds could do nothing to stop them.
Aly LeBlanc doubled three times and drove in a pair of runs as Madison raked 12 hits and blanked Lisbon 12-0 in the Class C South title game at St. Joseph’s College.
Madison will face C North champion Bucksport for the state title at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at St. Joseph’s College.
LeBlanc just missed a home run with a blast off the top of the wall in center field in the first inning. The two-out double scored Madeline Wood and gave the Bulldogs an early lead.
“I think I popped it up a little too much for it to be out, so I was expecting it to stay in,” said LeBlanc, who had two homers in the semifinal against Hall-Dale.
The Bulldogs (19-0) left the bases loaded in the second and had two runners thrown out at home in the third before they finally broke it open with a three-run fourth that started with two out. Singles by Whitney and Kayla Bess and Ashley Emery loaded the bases for Wood, who ripped a two-run single past the diving shortstop to make it 4-0. Back-to-back walks to LeBlanc and Erin Whalen pushed Emery across to make it 5-0.
“We just needed to make contact and swing through the ball, like usual,” Sydney LeBlanc said.
“Thankfully, we were able to score some more runs in those other innings,” Madison coach Chris LeBlanc added. “We had timely hitting. Whitney Bess just did a great job every time she had opportunities to get RBIs in the nine spot (in the order).”
Bess added an RBI single in the fifth to make it 6-0. The Bulldogs closed it out with six in the sixth inning, with the help of four Lisbon errors, an RBI double by Aly LeBlanc and an RBI single by Aishah Malloy.
“Madison is a dominant team,” Lisbon coach Terri Tlumac said. “They are always good hitters. They always are strong in the field. They have an all-around good club, from one through nine.”
Malloy, Sydney LeBlanc and Whitney Bess had two hits apiece for Madison.
Wood allowed four hits, a walk and hit a batter while striking out four in six innings for Madison.
Lisbon finished 12-7.
The Greyhounds had a chance to jump out early with runners reaching via walk, single, hit batter and error in the top of the first. But Kapri Steele was thrown out by Aly LeBlanc trying to steal second and Wood got Alexandra Sult to ground out to third as Bess made a fine scoop on the throw to get the out.
“I’ve had to do that a lot,” Bess said. “It was just routine now, I guess. We were pumped for this game. Our goal was to come out and pound them early. We didn’t really get going until the middle of the game.”
“The first inning really sets the tone for the game, and we had some nerves. That showed,” Wood said. “But it really helped that we got out of the inning. We got a run (in the bottom of the inning) and that helped us to get our momentum.”
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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