HERMON, Maine — Junior righthhander Anna Stevens pitched a five-hit complete game and freshman center fielder Camryn Clough had a memorable seventh inning with a run-scoring double and a great catch, as the Ellsworth High School Eagles earned a 5-2 softball win over Hermon late Wednesday afternoon.
The Eagles leapfrogged over the Hawks into second place in the Class B North Heal Points standings with the victory.
Ellsworth improved to 9-3 with its eighth win in its last nine games.
Hermon fell to 8-5 in losing for the third time in its last four games although the losses came to Class A Brewer and Class B North points leader and defending regional champ Nokomis of Newport in addition to Ellsworth.
Stevens survived seven walks, all coming over the last four innings on the warm late afternoon/early evening in Hermon.
She continually pitched out of jams, limiting Hermon to a 2-for-16 showing with men on base.
She struck out eight and hit a batter. She threw 134 pitches, 73 for strikes.
She stranded 11 Hawk baserunners.
“It was hot today and pitching in the heat is a big task,” said Stevens who added that when she got into trouble, she told herself she wasn’t going to issue a bases-loaded walk to allow a run to score.
“I needed to make this pitch right now. I need to do it for myself and for my team,” said Stevens, who primarily went with her fastball and change-up late in the game and “hit my spots.”
She threw a lot of curves at the start of the game, she said.
“Anna is so poised. She doesn’t let anything faze her. Having runners on doesn’t affect the way she pitches,” said Ellsworth softball coach Brandi Ensworth. “She fires hard all the time. She’s tremendous.”
Clough had given Stevens a valuable insurance run in the top of the seventh when she rifled a run-scoring double deep to left center after Sophie Lynch reached on a bad-hop single and Jayden Sullivan walked.
“I was looking to (hit) the ball into the gap. I had hit the ball right at people in my previous at-bats. I wanted to make solid contact,” said Clough.
In the bottom of the seventh, Braelynn Wilcox legged out an infield single and Mikelle Verrill walked to open the inning.
Addy Waning then hit a shallow fly ball to left center but the speedy Clough raced a long way to make an outstanding running catch.
“She covers some ground. She’s got speed, a good arm and she just went for it,” said Ensworth. “That’s tremendous. And she had that timely hit. We needed that double. It got the energy back up and going.”
The Hawks did load the bases after her catch with a walk but Stevens got a strikeout and an infield grounder to shortstop Aaliyah Manning to end it.
“Camryn had a great outing today,” said Stevens. “She hit that crazy line drive double and she made good plays in the field. She has my back all the time.”
Hermon took a 1-0 lead in the second when Molly Simcox smashed a double to deep right center field and scored on Sophie Peterson’s sharp single to center.
But Ellsworth responded with three runs in the third to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Brooklynn Carter drew a lead-off walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. She scored on a throwing error by third baseman Waning. Lynch and Sullivan followed with crisp singles to center to produce another run and Clough was credited with an RBI when she hit a roller in front of the plate and an errant throw was made to the plate by first baseman Verrill after Clough was thrown out at first.
Ellsworth made it 4-1 in the fifth on singles by Sullivan, Paige Johnson and Stevens (RBI).
Hermon answered with one in the bottom of the fifth on two walks and Waning’s RBI single into short right field. But Stevens induced a fly ball to center to end the rally.
Lynch and Sullivan each had two singles for Ellsworth while Peterson had two base hits for Hermon.
Wilcox tossed a solid seven-hit complete game with six walks and five strikeouts. She threw 131 pitches, 65 for strikes.
“We didn’t show up today,” said Hermon coach Steph Biberstein, who lost both games to the Eagles this season including a 5-4 contest in Ellsworth. “We didn’t play well. We didn’t capitalize on our chances, we made some errors and we didn’t hit the ball well.
“Kudos to Ellsworth. They’re a good team. Hopefully, if we see them in the playoffs, we will give them a better game. We will make the plays and hit the ball,” Biberstein added.
Hermon made three errors while Ellsworth played errorless ball.
Ellsworth will host Caribou for a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 2:30 while Hermon will travel to Presque Isle for a twinbill on Saturday beginning at noon.
