Skowhegan will probably enter the Eastern A softball tournament as the No. 5 seed. The Indians moved up to that spot from seventh by defeating both Bangor and Brewer last week.

“We played good defense,” Skowhegan coach Lee Johnson said. “I think that’s been our issue all year, has been how many extra outs we give other teams. Last week, we pitched well and made teams earn what they got.”

With a potent offense led by players like Shelby Obert, Amanda Johnson and Anna Lorette, Skowhegan has hit well in every game this season except a 3-0 loss to Hampden. Plus, the Indians believe they’ve got the right lineup in place.

“We’ve come to what we are,” Coach Johnson said. “This is what we’re going to stick with. It took us a long time to figure out what our best combination is. We think we’ve found it.”

As Johnson describes it, the Indians are “just sitting back and waiting.” And they have quite the long wait. Skowhegan’s last regular-season game was May 25, which means they’ll have 12 days off before they open the playoffs with a quarterfinal game next Thursday.

Johnson is looking for a scrimmage, but a lot of local possibilities are either tied to preliminary-round games (Waterville, Winslow, Nokomis, etc.) or have to use their last remaining available “non-scheduled” date to play in a conference championship (Messalonskee, Madison, etc.). The Maine Principals’ Association limits how many “non-scheduled” dates a team can have during the season.

“We’re going to play a lot of intrasquad scrimmages,” Johnson said. “I’m going to try to find somebody. I’m just not sure who we’re going to play.”

* * *

Rangeley had one of its biggest wins in school history when it defeated Richmond on Friday in the second game of a doubleheader. It was Richmond’s first loss of the season.

“As far as I know, I don’t think we’ve ever beaten Richmond,” Rangeley coach Ashley Quimby said, “and if we did, it was a long, long time ago.”

Richmond won the first game of the doubleheader, 14-0, before Rangeley won the nightcap, 9-5. Richmond had been averaging 12.8 runs per game against Class D opponents, including a 10-0 victory over Rangeley on April 28. The Bobcats had not lost an East-West Conference game since losing to Buckfield on May 20, 2010.

“It was huge, just to prove to our community and everyone else that we’re here to play,” Quimby said. “They mercied us the first game, and that says a lot about our team’s character. They never gave up. They knew they could do it, and they did it.”

Early in the season, vacations kept Rangeley from fielding its full starting lineup. Everyone is back now, and Quimby thinks that’s making a big difference. Still, she did take time after the win over Richmond to make sure the Lakers refocused after all the giddiness.

“We talked about it the practice after that game,” Quimby said. “I said, ‘That was huge for us guys, and it’s awesome that we did it. But this season’s not over, and we’ve got a lot of work to do.’ They know we have to win our playoff game before we can even think about playing Richmond again. We’ve got a lot to do before we can be where we want to be.”

Rangeley has four seniors — Chantal and Emily Carrier, Ellie Brooks and Sandra Campbell.

“Chan’s just pitching unreal this year. Unreal,” Quimby said. “Emily has been playing unreal at shortstop. Ellie Brooks, she just gets RBI after RBI. Sandra Campbell, she’s an outfielder. She’s a great leader. She was always the quiet one and this year she’s come out of her shell.”

* * *

Nokomis had a problem with bunching its errors in a few losses. The Warriors rebounded by playing two clean games, winning 3-0 over Maine Central Institute and 5-0 against Belfast behind sophomore Sara Packard’s no-hitter.

“She struck out six and we had great defense behind her,” Nokomis coach JD McLellan said. “Some of those errors we’d have earlier, we’d (go) right from one, to the next one, to the next one. They’re a little bit more relaxed (now).”

McLellan said senior second baseman Megan Perry and junior third baseman Taylor Lovley have been standing out lately.

“Megan Perry and Taylor Lovley have been playing lights out,” McLellan said. “Megan’s commanding the infield. Taylor’s been working hard on picking up bunts, and she’s doing really, really well.”

* * *

Dates and locations for the championship games in the Class A division of the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference and Mountain Valley Conference are set.

The KVAC is changing its format this year and will include the top four teams in Eastern Maine Class A instead of the two it has in the past. The matchups are determined by final Heal point standings and all three games will be played at Cony High School beginning at 11 a.m. with a matchup between No. 1 Cony and No. 4 Bangor. No. 2 Messalonskee plays No. 3 Erskine at 1:30 p.m. followed by the championship game between the two winners at 4. Because of a forecast of rain Saturday, Cony athletic director Paul Vachon has considered moving the games to Friday pending approval by the other teams.

“It looks like it’s a washout,” Messalonskee coach Leo Bouchard said about the weather forecast. “I like playing a KVAC game. It’s no different than having a postseason scrimmage game.”

The MVC game will be played Monday afternoon at St. Dominic in Auburn between No. 1 Madison and No. 2 Monmouth, which won the regular season meeting 2-1.

“It’s a chance to win a championship,” Madison coach Al Veneziano said. “You’ve got to go out and play to win. You don’t get those chances very often.”

Gary Hawkins contributed to this report.

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

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