During the regular season, Addison DeRoche was dominant. In her playoff opener, she was unhittable.
On Saturday, with a trip to the Class A South softball final at stake, the freshman star delivered perhaps her best performance yet.
DeRoche struck out 12 with six more hitless innings, and also homered and drove in three runs to lead second-ranked Cheverus past No. 6 Scarborough, 8-0. The game was shortened because of a thunderstorm that drenched the infield in the bottom of the sixth.
It’s the first trip to a regional final for Cheverus (17-1), which will meet defending champion Windham in a rematch of their heavily hyped regular-season finale, a 3-1 win for Windham. The defending state champion Eagles (18-0) beat Portland in Saturday’s other semifinal, 8-0.
“It’s very exciting for our kids,” Cheverus Coach John Eisenhart said. “Our kids had a rough week. … But last night at practice, finals were over, we had a great practice, one of our best practices of the year. I could just tell the kids would be locked in.”
None more so for the Stags than their freshman phenom. DeRoche, the newly minted Gatorade Player of the Year who no-hit Scarborough in the season opener, was untouchable again, allowing only one runner – on a dropped third strike.
The performance came on the heels of a 19-strikeout no-hitter against Massabesic in the quarterfinals, bringing her to 31 strikeouts in 13 playoff innings without a hit allowed. For the season, she’s 10-1 with a 0.10 ERA and 168 strikeouts in 70 innings.
This was DeRoche’s eighth no-hitter of the season, four went seven innings, three went five innings and Saturday’s was six innings.
“When you’re in the playoffs and you can lose and go home, you’re going to put everything that you have on the line and just go all out every pitch,” said DeRoche, who whiffed 10 of the first 12 hitters. “My catcher, Bella (Napolitano Aberle), (was) absolutely amazing. We’re all working together.”
Scarborough (13-6) walked off against Marshwood in the preliminary round and upset Gorham in the quarterfinals but again couldn’t solve DeRoche. Even better contact in the second half of the game didn’t bring any luck, as deep drives into the gaps by Meghan Robinson and Alana Sawyer in the fourth inning turned into harmless flyouts.
“I thought the kids were loose,” Scarborough Coach Brian Rice said. “They knew what we wanted to do. Obviously, the key to beating Cheverus is you have to hit Addison. … Unfortunately, she was much better than we were today.”
DeRoche was just as good at the plate. After Kelsey Cassidy walked and Delia Tremble reached on an error to open the first, DeRoche lined a single into left field to score both runners. In the third, she slammed a home run to left, putting the Stags up 4-0.
“It feels good to do things on both sides, and help my team when they’re on for me,” she said. “I just want to be able to score them any way I can.”
The rest of the deep Cheverus lineup got involved to help the Stags pull away. Tremble doubled and scored on a Hailey Lamontagne single in the fifth, and Lamontagne and Ashley Connor came home on Anna Kennedy-Jensen’s double. In the sixth, Abby Kelly led off with a single, and Lamontagne knocked her in with a hit before the skies opened.
“Just knowing Cheverus hasn’t been this far … is really exciting for us,” Lamontagne said, “and we’re really proud of how far we’ve come.”
It was the end of a spirited run for Scarborough, which overcame season-ending injuries to top pitcher Natalie Moynihan and third baseman Sophia Rinaldi to win seven straight games before Saturday.
“From where they started … to peak at the right time and start playing to their potential, it was a wild ride,” Rice said. “We’ve got some good talent coming up. I think it’s a fantastic starting point for us.”
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