Five-run fifth inning helps Foxcroft earn fifth victory of the season
DOVER-FOXCROFT — After visiting Mount Desert Island High School took its first lead of a May 5 Class B North softball Saturday matinee during the top of the fifth inning at 4-3, Foxcroft Academy responded with an even bigger inning. The Ponies scored five times in the bottom of the fifth and the five-run outburst helped the team hold on for the 8-4 victory to improve to a perfect 5-0 on the season.
Foxcroft junior and game leadoff hitter Cailin Seavey got the inning started by dropping a double into rightfield. Senior Kiara Prescott followed by tripling to deep centerfield to score Seavey and tie the game at four runs apiece.
Prescott came home for what would turn out to be the winning run on an RBI-double hit by senior Jenna Clukey along the leftfield line. The double was Clukey’s second of the contest and each of her two hits drove in a Pony run. She ended up as one of three players between the two teams picking up multiple hits during the afternoon.
Junior Makenzie Beaudry bunted to move Clukey over to third, and the play worked to perfection as Beaudry placed the softball in just the right spot for her to get to the bag before the Trojans could even attempt a throw with the focus on Clukey.
Freshman Sheryl Chase sent a pitch to deep centerfield where it landed on the grass to drive in Clukey and Beaudry for a 7-4 Foxcroft advantage. Chase’s triple ended up being the fourth extra-base hit in five plate appearances to start the inning.
Junior Kylie Dow came up next and she laid a bunt down on the infield dirt. Chase was off with the pitch and she slid into the plate safely ahead of the throw for run No. 5 of the inning to put the Ponies on top 8-4.
Beaudry tossed a complete game for Foxcroft and after yielding a leadoff single in the sixth, she struck out the next two batters and left the mound on a foul ball caught by junior first baseman McKenna Higgins in front of the MDI dugout.
The Pony pitcher began the seventh by striking out the No. 2 and No. 3 hitters ing the MDI lineup, and a flyball to Dow in leftfield retired the side and ended the game. Beaudry scattered six hits across innings, walking just one and striking out 14.
Earlier in the game Beaudry got her team out of a jam as MDI had runners at second and third with one out in the second. Beaudry proceeded to strike out the next two batters as the Trojans left a pair of baserunners in scoring position on the bases. MDI would fall to 2-3 with the defeat.
In the home half inning Chase scored on a throwing run, her team’s first run and first of two times Chase would touch the plate, and freshman Amber Richard was then driven in on a Higgins single.
An inning later a Clukey RBI-double drove in Seavey to put the Ponies up 3-2.
Foxcroft and MDI are scheduled to play again less than a week after playing in Dover-Foxcroft, facing off on the diamond in Bar Harbor at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 10.
SOFTBALL
Foxcroft 8,
MDI 4
MDI 002 020 0 4
FOX 021 050 X 8
MDI: Chamberlain
2-4 two runs
FOX: Clukey 2-4
two RBIS run two SB;
Prescott 2-4 3B
RBI run
WP — Beaudry 7 IP 4 runs
6 hits 1 BB 14 K
LP — McEachern 6 IP 8 runs
9 hits 0 BB 4 K
Records: Foxcroft 5-0,
MDI 2-3
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
A HIGH FIVE FOR FOXCROFT — Foxcroft junior Cailin Seavey dives to get to the throw on a stolen base for MDI sophomore Madison Neale, with Pony freshman Sheryl Chase backing up, during the third inning of a May 5 contest in Dover-Foxcroft. The Ponies would score five runs in the fifth inning to go ahead 8-4 and the team held on to improve to a perfect 5-0 in 2018.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
HEAD ON HOME — Foxcroft freshman Amber Richard is directed to round third and head home during the bottom of the second in a May 5 Class B North softball game vs. MDI. Richard would score on junior McKenna Higgins’ RBI-single for the second Pony run of the inning.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
THIRD TO FIRST FOR THE OUT — Senior Kiara Prescott throws across the diamond, as junior shortstop Cailin Seavey looks on, during the second inning. Prescott was one of three players with multiple hits in the game between Foxcroft and MDI.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
WIN ON THE MOUND — Junior Makenzie Beaudry handled the pitching duties for Foxcroft, tossing all seven innings and scattering four runs and six hits while walking one and striking out 14.