A 17K No-No
Medomak's ace spins a gem. DeRoche is nearly perfect. Lily Fortin almost adds her own no-hitter.
With 16 Regional Finals around the state (plus a couple of Lacrosse games!), it was a full day, so let's just go class-by-class and hit the highlights and then we'll have a more normal newsletter tomorrow with the light lacrosse schedule.
Class A
The story of the A South tournament has been Gorham and the, uh, lucky breaks they've gotten so far, and #10 Noble's run to a Regional Final. If you've watched enough sports movies, you knew how this could go: Noble could continue their miracle run and end Gorham's semi-charmed life.
But not everything is a movie and Gorham found the groove that earned them the number 1 overall seed with a 7-2 win over the Knights. Hunter Finck got out of a bases-loaded jam in the 6th inning to go the distance. Gorham will face Bangor, who knocked off the top-seeded Oxford Hills. The Rams scored all 5 of their runs with 2 outs and all but one of them in the final two innings to rally past the Vikings.
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In softball, Addison DeRoche and friends led Cheverus back to the state championship game. Leah Story broke up DeRoche's perfect game in the seventh inning with a single, but by that point Bonny Eagle trailed 5-0 and there's probably no way you're scoring 5 runs on DeRoche in the 7th inning unless she decides for some reason to give up softball mid-game. After all, Cheverus has only given up 4 runs all year and never more than 1 in a game. DeRoche finished with 15 strikeouts and a 1-hitter. I haven't run the numbers yet, but the Stags will be heavy favorites against Hampden, who won the north thanks to Cat Facchini's RBI double and complete game shutout. The win, 1-0 over Lewiston, avenged an earlier loss for the Broncos and gave them their first Regional Title in program history.
Class B
It's impossible to tell the story of the 2025-26 school year without a paragraph or two about Parker Morin of Cony. Back in the fall, it seemed possible that Morin could graduate with 3 Gold Balls and while he's gotten close in football and basketball, he hasn't quite been able to get over the hump. So when Hermon loaded the bases in the first inning against him, it seemed like he might go 0-3. But he minimized the damage in the first, then hit a go-ahead triple in the 5th inning to give Cony the lead for good. The Rams overcame a 10-strikeout outing from Mason Kinney to keep their Gold Ball hopes alive. They'll face a Fryeburg team that reversed last year's 4-3 loss to Greely with a 4-3 outcome of their own. They scored 4 in the first 2 innings and held on for the win.
Mike MandellStaff Writer
One of the weirdest outlier results of this season has been Gardiner's 17-16 win over Medomak Valley. If you take that result out, the teams allowed 3.8 (Gardiner) and 0.7 (Medomak) runs a game, respectively. So to have a game with 33 runs total was a surprise and no one was more surprised than Rob Munzing on the Munzing Media broadcast who clearly thought he would be calling something like a 3-2 game, or even the 4-3 win Gardiner got in the Regional Final over Old Town thanks to Molly Takatsu's sacrifice fly in bottom of the 7th inning. She also tossed a complete game in the circle to set a rematch with Medomak Valley. The Panthers got an absolute gem of a performance from Sidney Nicholls.
Nicholls has been on an absolute tear in these playoffs and saved her best performance for the Regional Final against Lake Region. She threw a no-hitter with 17 strikeouts and I think only one ball even got past her, a grounder to short that freshman Rheanne Simmons took care off (she also laced a 2-out triple to the fence that broke open some scoring). Nicholls has given up 2 hits in the playoffs to go with 32 strikeouts. So if we're setting the Gardiner/Medomak over/under at 32.5 runs, I'll take the under.
But how will the Bleacher Creatures adapt to a softball field? That's the big question
Class C
At 16-2 with a win over the top-seeded Monmouth, Maranacook had to feel pretty good about their chances last night. Six outs and 13 batters later, they were trailing 9-0 and starting to get ready for summer basketball. Monmouth added 3 in the fifth to end the game early. They'll take on Washington Academy who avenged their only loss of the year with a 4-0 win over Mattanawcook.
Have you checked out this week's podcast yet?
In softball, Dirigo broke out for 3 runs in the 4th inning to prevent Monmouth from taking both teams to the state game. They'll be underdogs against a Bucksport team that's won 18 in a row.
Drew BonifantStaff Writer
Class D
While we were watching the B South softball final at St. Joseph's, there was a lot of yelling across the way on the baseball field because just a short while after losing to them 8-2, Telstar erupted for 12 runs against Richmond to romp to a 12-1 win in the D South final. It's a stunning result for a Richmond team that hadn't given more than 3 runs in a game all year and had the 5th best scoring defense in the state. Telstar, for their part, had gotten to double-digits a couple of times this year, but never against one of the better teams on their schedule. This is why we play the games. Richmond didn't help themselves by committing 11 errors, which is the sort of thing that gives coaches ulcers.
In softball, Penobscot Valley punched a return ticket to the title game with a 5-2 win over Katahdin. They'll take on NYA and Lily Fortin. Fortin took a no-hitter into the 7th inning.
Remember, if you can't get to the games on Saturday, they'll be on NFHS.
There's a couple of lacrosse games on the schedule today.
Let's go to Class A boys, where the top 4 seeds are somehow all still alive.
TA beat Yarmouth 12-8 a couple of weeks ago and should have the advantage here in this battle to (likely) take on Falmouth for the Gold Ball.
The Model's picks for the rest of today's games are after the jump.