Camryn Hurley saw a confident Stearns team bent on revenge when she and her Richmond softball teammates looked across the Coffin Field diamond in Brewer on Saturday.
It caused her to flash back to the look she saw in many of her teammates last fall, when their mission was to take the Class D soccer title from Ashland, which had shocked them in overtime for the title the year prior.
“They (Stearns) were ready to beat us. It was kind of like during soccer when we were ready to beat Ashland,” Hurley said.
The Bobcats beat Ashland, excelled in their winter hobby by making a splash in the first season in Class C basketball — earning the top seed in their region — then steamrolled through Class D softball, including Stearns, as they had for the previous three years, running their record winning streak to 70 games and a fourth state title.
The whirlwind school year concluded with Richmond fire trucks meeting the team bus at Exit 43 on Interstate 295 for yet another parade through town Saturday night after their 15-6 win.
The upper classmen are starting to lose count of all of the parades they have had between state and regional titles in soccer and softball (the graduating seniors won a dozen of those in their four-year careers). But the celebration never gets to be routine.
“The best part is hanging out the windows and screaming ‘We won!’ and “We’re No. 1!'” junior pitcher Meranda Martin said. “Even if it’s 10 o’clock at night, there are always people coming out on their front steps and coming to their windows and waving.”
In year’s past, Tony Martin, Meranda’s father and the Bobcats’ first-year head coach, was typically a parade observer, even as an assistant coach on the Bobcats’ last four state title teams. On Saturday, he was riding with the honored guests for the entire route through town.
“I never thought it was as big as it was because I always parked on the side and watched them go through,” Martin said. “It was incredible the way people came out, a lot of them holding four fingers in the air. And so many of the older people in town coming out because they follow what’s going on.”
With Leandra Martin, Meranda’s older sister, serving as Tony’s assistant coach and Tony’s wife, Gayelynn, as the team’s scorekeeper, the Martin family had extra reason to celebrate Father’s Day. Things returned more to normal Monday, with Tony returning to work and Meranda helping out with a U12 all-star team.
With the celebrations winding down and the anxiety that accompanied the last two weeks gone, the Bobcats had a chance to reflect on their 18-0 season Monday.
Despite a perfect regular season that saw them outscore their opponents 254-25 in 15 games, the Bobcats — or at least their coach — didn’t feel completely comfortable heading into the tournament.
“It’s been a lot of pressure the last couple of weeks,” Tony Martin said. “Before we started in the tournament, we had a week-and-a-half where we couldn’t play. We tried to get a few scrimmages and we just couldn’t get one.”
With the D South tournament consisting of just two rounds, Richmond had to wait nine days to play games that count again. Scrimmages that Martin planned with Carrabec and Biddeford to stay sharp fell through, forcing Martin to rely on batting practice against Meranda and sophomore catcher/pitcher Sydney Tilton to make sure their bats didn’t go cold.
Facing two of the top pitchers in Class D in practice made Greenville’s semifinal round challenge seem like actual batting practice, as the Bobcats pushed across 18 runs in five innings. After that, Buckfield, one of only two teams to not lose to the Bobcats by double digits during the season, stood little chance of denying them their seventh straight regional title and fell in six innings, 13-2.
Stearns, a familiar opponent which had given the Bobcats a scare early in last year’s 9-4 state final, stood between them and a 70th win and fourth gold glove in a row. The talented young Minutemen saved the scare for a little later in the game this time, rallying from an 9-1 deficit to pull within 9-6 in the fourth.
Coach Martin was impressed by how his team responded to that rare bit of adversity, particularly in trying to pick up senior shortstop Kalah Patterson, who had made a couple of errors in Stearns’ four-run fourth.
“They always stayed positive and they were there to pick her up,” he said. “It was what we’ve been saying to them all year — if you make a mistake out on the field, forget about it. There’s another one coming at you, whether it’s in the field or at bat. You’re going to have another play to make.” Patterson picked herself and her teammates up with a single and double in the final two innings to help Richmond pull away for good. Meranda Martin buckled down in the circle, and before long it was time for the town of Richmond to get its last-minute parade preparations in order.
The parade was the last official act in a Richmond uniform for seniors Autumn Acord, Kelsea Anair and Patterson, who never lost a game in their varsity careers. The latter two will leave a big void on the left side of the infield and in the middle of the lineup. Acord’s speed and range in center field will also be missed.
“They’re awesome. All three of them. They all bring something different,” Tony Martin said.
“Next year, all sports are going to be really hard without them,” Meranda Martin said. “We grew up with them and they’ve been such great friends; it’s going to be hard being the senior leaders and filling that void.”
Even if they can’t find the missing pieces, the Bobcats should still have Martin, Tilton, Hurley and fellow starters Emily Douin, Cassidy Harriman and Caitlyn Kendrick around to extend their winning streak, make a run at an unprecedented fifth state softball title in a row and again scream out the windows of a bus rolling through town in mid-June.
“I think we’re going to be just as tough, and just as strong,” Tilton said. “We’re going to hurt a little bit, but we’re going to recover, just like we always do.”
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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