ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Mount Desert Island High School softball team was anxious to get the sour taste out of their mouths following Wednesday’s 12-6 loss to Brewer in which the Trojans imploded in the seventh inning, giving up 10 runs to squander a 6-2 lead.
And they did just that on Friday as junior Addy Boyce tossed a five-hit gem and they erased a 2-1 deficit with two runs in the fourth inning to edge rival Ellsworth 3-2.
“We came out saying the Brewer game was either going to take us down or bring us together and it brought us together today,” said MDI coach Jamey Lewis. “The girls played really good ball.”
Boyce struck out eight, hit a batter but didn’t walk anybody. She had pinpoint control as evidenced by her 68 strikes among her 85 pitches.
“She pitched the game of her life,” said Lewis.
Boyce said she was motivated by the Brewer loss and the fact they lost three regular season games to Ellsworth last season.
“This was a little bit of a revenge game for me,” said Boyce, an All-Penobscot Valley Conference Class B first team pitcher a year ago.
Ellsworth senior Tyler Hellum also turned in an excellent pitching performance featuring outstanding control.
She allowed just five hits with nine strikeouts and one walk. Just one of the runs off her was earned. She threw 63 strikes among her 88 pitches.
Pivotal play: Sophomore right fielder Mollie Gray drilled a long one-out scoring double to the fence in right center field in the fourth inning that delivered Boyce with the tying run and set the stage for Lily James’ grounder to short that chased home what turned out to be the winning run.
Gray jumped on Hellum’s first pitch and Boyce, who had poked a single to right to start the rally, trotted home from third. An infield throwing error had allowed Grace Horner to reach base and pinch-runner Brooke Goff-Perreault replaced her and scored the winning run.
Big takeaway: Class B North is up for grabs with several teams capable of capturing the title. Nokomis of Newport, behind hard-throwing sophomore Mia Coots, is the only team with less than three losses. Nokomis is 10-1 but has scored just 11 runs in its last five games and was shut out by Hermon 1-0. Ellsworth (9-3), MDI (8-3), Old Town (7-3) and Lawrence of Fairfield (9-3) are the teams with three losses.
Hermon is 6-4 but its last three losses have been by a combined total of four runs.
What’s next: MDI entertains Old Town on Monday at 4:30 and Ellsworth travels to George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill on Wednesday for a 4:30 contest.
