The Machias Memorial High School softball team hasn’t finished higher than fifth in the Class D North Heal Point standings in Kate Whitney’s three seasons as the head coach.
But the team has gone 8-2 in its playoff games during that time capped by this season’s 3-0 showing, which has provided the school with its first ever regional softball championship.
Machias, which is now 13-3, entered the playoffs as the fifth seed and knocked off No. 4 Woodland (13-0), No. 1 Hodgdon (16-0), and No. 2 Penobscot Valley of Howland (9-4) to earn a berth in Tuesday’s 3 p.m. state championship game against 17-1 North Yarmouth Academy at Coffin Field in Brewer.
Last season as the eighth seed, Machias dispatched No. 9 Schenck of East Millinocket 4-1, No. 1 Wisdom of St. Agatha 8-0 and No. 5 Penobscot Valley 7-1 before losing to third seed Hodgdon 2-0 in the regional final.
The team won two playoff games the previous year as the fifth seed before losing to top seed Ashland 14-7 in the semifinals.
“We like going into the playoffs as a low seed,” Whitney said. “People look at us as a fifth or an eighth seed and don’t expect to see what we’re able to do.”
Whitney, a 25-year-old Jonesboro native, was hired right after she graduated from St. Joseph’s College in Standish, where she was a pitcher for the Monks.
She pitched for three seasons at Machias High before taking the circle for the Ellsworth Eagles her senior year.
She said when she started coaching with her father, Patrick, as her assistant, she thought the group could be really successful.
“We came up a little short last year but I knew this could be our shot,” Whitney said. “These girls grew up playing together. So they have played with a lot of consistency and teamwork. And they all get along. They had this one goal and worked toward it all year long. They wanted it badly.”
“We’ve been waiting for this,” said senior first baseman Jaydin Anderson. “We are all really close.”
The catalyst is lefthanded pitcher Jaida Case, who eclipsed the 500-strikeout mark for her career earlier this month.
The senior notched her 500th strikeout in a 1-0 eight-inning win over Calais on May 29.
“She is phenomenal. She has been very consistent,” Whitney said.
Case, who is going to pitch for Southern Maine Community College next season, is tutored by Husson University of Bangor pitching coach Rick Roberts, who was Whitney’s former pitching instructor when she was a player.
The team has scored 38 runs in its three playoff wins.
Whitney said she wouldn’t have believed that her team was capable of that type of production at the beginning of the season.
“I just talked to them about being confident. Confidence is such a huge aspect of it. They believe in themselves. They saw they could hit,” she said.
The Bulldogs fell behind Penobscot Valley 4-0 in the regional final but scored the game’s final nine runs as the bats came alive in the later innings after settling down and being more selective instead of swinging at some bad pitches like they did early in the game.
Whitney explained that they were nervous and the adrenaline was rushing in the early innings so they “weren’t being patient.”
Case is the leadoff hitter and had two hits and a walk in four at-bats against PVHS.
Sophomore shortstop Maleah Rhodes, junior second baseman Skyler Tinker, Anderson, senior catcher Maggie Allen and sophomore designated player Cassandra Dahl hit 2 through 6 in the lineup and have all had productive seasons.
Anderson had two doubles and three runs batted in against the Howlers. Dahl had two singles and two RBIs and Tinker had a pair of base hits.
Sophomore right fielder Lauren Wood, the seventh hitter, also had a pair of singles and two RBIs.
Junior center fielder Emma Worcester hits eighth and senior third baseman Chloe Savage hits in the nine spot. Freshman Lauren Davis is the left fielder.
The reserves are senior outfielder Sienna Ingalls, junior outfielders Payge Sproul and Kendall Atkinson, and freshman outfielder Presley Day.
Allison Gauvin is an assistant coach along with Patrick Whitney.
The team is also solid, defensively, committing just one error against the Howlers and making a number of impressive plays in the field including Tinker’s nifty backhanded snare of an Allie LeBlanc grounder, Anderson’s gem on another sharp grounder by LeBlanc and Rhodes’ play in the shortstop hole to nail Lila Cummings at first.
Whitney is thoroughly enjoying coaching this team, as she has her previous two.
“They have made it very easy for me. It is such a great group of girls. It has been an awesome experience, it really has,” Whitney said.
