STANDISH — You’ll have to take more than one swing at a perennial power if you expect to walk home with some hardware.
The upstart Narraguagus Knights delivered a single blow in the top of the first inning, scoring three runs, but couldn’t follow up against Madison ace Lauria LeBlanc in the Class C state title game Saturday afternoon.
Powered by a five-run second inning, the Bulldogs rolled to a 7-3 victory at Bailey Field on the campus of St. Joseph’s College.
The Madison softball team celebrates after it defeated Narraguagus 7-3 in the Class C state title game Saturday at Bailey Field on the St. Joseph’s College campus.
Madison capped am unblemished 20-0 season with its third state title in five seasons and ninth overall. It also handed head coach Chris LeBlanc his 100th career coaching victory.
“Chris calls it our second home for a reason,” said Madison senior center fielder Sydney LeBlanc, who delivered the Bulldogs’ most crushing blow — a bases-loaded, bases-clearing double to give Madison a 5-3 lead with two outs in the bottom of the second.
It was all the support sophomore lefty LeBlanc would need in the circle. LeBlanc was magnificent in a two-hitter, striking out 14 and not allowing a walk or an earned run.
“She’s got a little attitude in her,” Chris LeBlanc said. “She probably figured if they don’t hit it, I don’t have to worry about those plays (behind her).”
Though the day ended with a blue-and-white clad celebration in center field, it appeared from the get-go that it wasn’t going to be Madison’s day.
After LeBlanc needed just five pitches to record the game’s first two outs, Narraguagus (18-2) capitalized on some fielding miscues. Three straight Knight batters pounded balls in the direction of Madison senior shortstop Annie Worthen, and she struggled to field any of them cleanly. By the time Kaci Alley reached on the third error of the inning, Narraguagus had stunned the Bulldogs with a 3-0 lead.
Chris LeBlanc knew his team would respond.
“As I’ve said all along, we’ve had those peaks and valleys within a game and this was the perfect example of it,” he said. “I didn’t even say anything to them (after the first inning).”
Whitney Bess brought home a single run in the first with an RBI groundout to score Ashley Emery, before the Bulldogs exploded for their own two-out rally in the second against Narraguagus junior Lanie Perry.
Emily Edgerly’s RBI triple down the left field line was followed by Sydney LeBlanc’s three-run knock and Worthen’s RBI single.
“It was unlucky for us,” Perry said. “I knew I hadn’t quite hit my spot yet, but I settled in afterward pretty good. We just couldn’t get our bats going again.”
Lauria LeBlanc did her part in the interim, at one point retiring 15 in a row from the first through sixth innings. After surrendering the 3-0 lead, LeBlanc faced just one batter over the minimum the rest of the way — a harmless, two-out bloop single to Kylee Joyce in the sixth.
Madison sophomore pitcher Laurie LeBlanc delivers during the Class C state title game Saturday at Bailey Field on the St. Joseph’s College campus.
“I knew that after first inning that we had to get our stuff together, and I knew I had to get my own stuff together,” Lauria LeBlanc said. “I needed to just relax and go out there and do it.”
Perry tried to match LeBlanc after finally getting out of the second, which she nearly did. But there simply wasn’t enough offensive support in a game that featured eight total hits. Madison added an insurance run in the sixth off Perry on Emery’s sacrifice.
Narraguagus may have struck first, but it was Madison which struck back — swiftly and with authority. For a team with seven seniors having now played in three state championship games in three years (they lost the 2017 title contest to Bucksport), winning two of them, the Bulldogs were not overwhelmed by the moment or the early deficit.
“We’ve been in games before, unfortunately, where we’ve made mistakes,” Chris LeBlanc said. “Knowing the temperament of the team, you don’t need to tell them anything. They already know it. If it’s a younger team that doesn’t know how to win and how to rebound, your approach might be a little different.”
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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