Freshman Sophie Peasley hurls a pitch in for a strike. By Jack Scott
Deer Isle—The George Stevens Academy varsity softball team snapped a five-game losing streak, edging past Deer Isle-Stonington 10-9 in Deer Isle on May 7.
The score looked like business as usual through the first three innings, with the Mariners up 8-0 on their home field, when the Eagles struck and walked their way to six runs before heading into the field.
But first, Coach Stormi Wentworth gave her team some firm words.
“You guys can come back and play ball hard if you put your minds to it,” she recalls telling them before the turnaround.
The Eagles went on to score two runs in the fifth inning and two in the sixth while keeping the Mariners to one run in the seventh.
“We held them down after the seventh with defensive plays in the field,” Wentworth said.
Freshman pitcher Sophie Peasley threw eight strikeouts and junior catcher Heather Munroe held down the home plate. “There were a lot of pitches in the dirt but she controlled what she could,” Wentworth said.
Her team smartened up at bat, reading pitches to walk on base, she said, while junior Sarah Chamber also went two for five from the plate.
“When we get her on the bus, we have a good chance of scoring,” Wentworth noted.
The win may have helped a 20-10 loss to Sumner the previous Friday, May 4, when Wentworth said the girls were ahead by eight runs at one point.
“My job is to figure out what they’re doing wrong and make them do it better,” she said. “I was just happy for them that they didn’t give up and kept battling.”
The Eagles host Orono (5-1) on Thursday, May 10, at 4:30 p.m.