BREWER, Maine — The Machias High School girls softball team had never won a regional title and it didn’t look like they were going to win one on Wednesday night, either.
The Bulldogs fell behind Penobscot Valley of Howland 4-0 in their Class D North championship game and PVHS freshman pitcher Laura Veino had struck out eight consecutive hitters through three innings.
But the Bulldogs scored nine unanswered runs, including four apiece in the sixth and seventh innings, and went on to post a 9-4 victory at Coffin Field in Brewer.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs, now 13-3, will take on North Yarmouth Academy, 18-1, in Saturday’s state championship game at Coffin Field beginning at noon.
NYA ousted defending two-time state champ Searsport 2-1.
Second seed Penobscot Valley lost for the first time this season and wound up 14-1.
It is the third consecutive year that the Bulldogs have eliminated the Howlers in the playoffs, including victories in the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final.
Senior catcher Jaydin Anderson paced Machias’ 10-hit attack with a pair of doubles and two runs batted in and senior lefty Jaida Case fired a four-hitter, striking out 15 and walking three to earn the win. She threw 118 pitches, of which 81 were strikes.
Anderson said because they were so excited early in the game, they were “swinging at everything.”
“Then we started watching the ball in every time and we finally started making contact,” she added.
Machias coach Kate Whitney said she had to remind them to “take a breath, relax and make contact. We needed to slow things down and make [Veino] throw strikes to us. Don’t swing at balls.
“Then we finally started playing how we had been playing,” added Whitney, whose team has scored 38 runs in its three playoff wins.
Trailing 4-1 entering the sixth inning, Case started the four-run rally with a line drive single. She raced to second on a pickoff attempt and, one out later, Skyler Tinker legged out an infield single on a grounder to short.
Anderson followed with a two-run double to the right center field gap to make it 4-3.
After a strikeout, Cassandra Dahl, who had struck out in her first two at-bats, tied the game with a line drive single to right and she went to second on the throw to the plate.
“We moved up in the box a little bit because we had been ahead of her pitches rather than behind them,” said Dahl, who scored what proved to be the winning run on Lauren Wood’s bloop single to right.
Whitney said Anderson and Dahl have been clutch for the team all year.
The Bulldogs added four unearned runs in the seventh.
Case drew a one-out walk and went to third on Tinker’s two-out slow roller to third that went for an infield single. Tinker stole second and they both scored when Anderson’s grounder went through the shortstop’s legs.
Following a walk to Maggie Allen, Dahl and Wood produced RBI singles.
PVHS took a 1-0 lead in the second on an error, two walks and a passed ball.
The Howlers made it 4-0 in the third on singles by Allie LeBlanc and Emma Potter, a walk, and Kellie Williams’ bases-clearing triple over the right fielder’s head.
Williams is the only senior for the youthful Howlers.
Machias got one back in the fourth on Anderson’s double and Allen’s base hit.
After the third inning, Case settled in and allowed only one hit the rest of the game. She struck out seven hitters in a row in one stretch and 15 of the final 18 outs came via the strikeout.
“I was pretty happy with the way I pitched. We won, so I’m happy. The whole team contributed and I’m really proud of them,” Case said.
“Jaida is a very good pitcher,” said PVHS coach Jessica McKechnie. “Machias played a great game. They’re a great team. They didn’t give up. That has been us the last two games, coming from behind. We’re young. We’ll be back here next year.”
Anderson had her team’s only extra-base hits with her two doubles but Tinker and Wood each had a pair of run-scoring singles and Case singled twice and walked from her leadoff spot and scored twice.
Williams tripled and singled for the Howlers and drove in three runs.
Veino pitched a complete game and her eight consecutive strikeouts came on just 29 pitches.
She finished with 13 strikeouts. She gave up 10 hits and walked two.