BREWER, Maine — It was a memorable night for the Coots family.
Senior pitcher Mia Coots hurled a one-hit masterpiece with 14 strikeouts, and her freshman sister/catcher Hallie Coots delivered a clutch two-run double as the Nokomis High School softball team from Newport defended its Class B North championship with a 5-1 victory over Old Town at Coffin Field in Brewer Tuesday night.
The top-seeded Warriors, who have now won 14 games in a row, are 17-2 and will take on 19-0 York in Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. state championship game at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.
It will be a rematch of last year’s state game won by York 2-1.
Old Town, which had won 10 of its last 11 entering the game, wound up 14-5.
Old Town had scored a total of 23 runs in its quarterfinal and semifinal wins, but Miss Maine Softball finalist Coots silenced the Coyote bats with her array of pitches including a lively riseball and ever-so-slow change-up.
Ava Brasslett’s ground ball single in the fourth inning just beyond the reach of shortstop Jenna Sawtelle was the only hit off her.
The only other hard-hit ball off her was Brasslett’s lined drive to right fielder Annie Nyce in the seventh inning.
Coots didn’t walk anybody and threw only 89 pitches of which 67 were strikes. She retired the last 11 hitters she faced, seven via strikeouts.
“I’ve been doing a really good mixing my pitches and my sister called a great game,” said Mia Coots, who shut out Hermon 2-0 in the semifinals.
“Everything was working,” said Hallie Coots. “She had good speed. She threw a great game against Hermon and I was wondering if she could come in and do the same thing against Old Town and she did. To have 14 strikeouts against his (Old Town) team in a championship game is amazing to see. She was locked in. She wanted to get to (the state championship) game.”
“Her pitching was on. She had some balls that were moving really hard. Her riseball was breaking late like it should and they swung under it a lot,” said Nokomis coach J.D. McLellan. “She’s also developed a couple other pitches.”
He also said her change-up was effective.
Nokomis has held 16 of its 19 opponents to two runs or fewer.
Nokomis took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a walk, stolen base, a throwing error and a passed ball, but Old Town tied it in the fourth on a Brasslett’s base hit, a stolen base and a throwing error.
The Warriors answered with three in the bottom of the fourth.
Reagan King belted a long triple off the right fielder’s glove with one out, Mackenzie Watson walked and Nyce delivered King with a grounder to first to restore the one-run lead.
Hailey Getchell was hit by a pitch, and Hallie Coots delivered both of them with her ground ball double over the third base bag off a change-up thrown by reliever Haley Sirois.
“There were two outs and I have been in a hitting slump,” said Hallie Coots. “I knew I had to wait on the ball, keep my hands back and swing.”
She said coming through with an important hit to help her University of Southern Maine-bound sister have another crack at a state championship “means so much.
“I love being able to be the catcher and hit the best I can and work for my team and my sister and help bring everyone back to the state championship game,” Hallie Coots said.
The Warriors added an insurance run in the fifth on Addison Hawthorne’s two-out double and Reagan King’s RBI single.
“We got some timely hits. We put the bat on the ball when we needed to,” said McLellan.
Hawthorne and Reagan King each had a double and a single for Nokomis.
