Jun. 17—Winslow High School catcher Harley Pomerleau had doubled in her previous two at-bats when she stepped up to the plate in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s Class B North championship game against Nokomis of Newport.
She had a runner on first and two outs in a 9-9 tie.
Pomerleau delivered again, hitting a sinking liner that skipped past the Nokomis left fielder for her third double to deliver the game-winning run in a wild 10-9 extra-inning victory at Coffin Field in Brewer.
Eighth-seeded Winslow (8-11) won its first regional title since 2007 and plays undefeated South titlist Cape Elizabeth (20-0), a 5-4 winner over Fryeburg Academy, in Saturday’s 4 p.m. state title game, also in Brewer.
Third seed Nokomis wound up 14-6.
Winslow squandered 7-1 and 9-7 leads but Jenna Libby beat out a bunt single with one out in the ninth.
Lilly Harvey lined to right fielder Rachel Creswell, who threw to first to double off Libby. But the Nokomis first baseman dropped the ball, opening the door for Pomerleau to come to the plate one more time.
“I wasn’t looking for any particular pitch. I was just trying to get a hit to get her [Libby] in,” Pomerleau said.
The Black Raiders came through in the clutch all game long, scoring its first seven runs with two outs.
Libby’s RBI single and Harvey’s two-run base hit staked Winslow to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Three walks, a wild pitch and a bunt single by Megan Watson produced a run in the bottom of the first for Nokomis.
But Winslow pitcher Emma Michaud struck out the side with the bases loaded to keep her team on top by two runs.
Winslow pushed across four runs in the fourth inning on RBI singles by Leah Knight and Karlie Ramsdell and Nevaeh Duplessie’s two-run base hit.
Nokomis began its comeback with a run in the fourth on Ali Grozik’s RBI single and Mia Coots drove in a fifth-inning run with a single.
Nokomis tied it with four runs in the seventh on one-out singles by Hope Brookes, Sydney King and Maya Cooney (RBI), a walk and wild pitches that allowed the final three runs to score.
Winslow answered with two in the top of the eighth on Pomerleau’s double, Lacy Sillanpaa’s RBI single and Knight’s run-scoring base hit.
But the resilient Warriors answered with two in the bottom of the eighth on Mandi King’s infield single, Watson’s RBI double, a groundout, Brookes’ bunt single and a run-producing wild pitch.
With the winning run on third, Michaud struck out the next hitter and right fielder Duplessie made a game-saving catch on a fly ball into shallow right.
Nokomis coach J.D. McLellan said he thought his youthful team was in trouble when it fell behind 7-1 but it showed a lot of heart and determination to battle back.
Pomerleau’s three doubles and Libby’ three singles paced the Black Raiders.