GORHAM – Walking Michelle Libby solved one problem, but Katie Pike gave Georges Valley something else to worry about.

Libby didn’t produce the damage that the Buccaneers feared Tuesday night in the fourth inning of a scoreless game, but Pike sure did. Her two-out single put Sacopee Valley on the board first, and the Hawks built off that momentum in a 5-0 win in the Western C championship game.

“Michelle and I call ourselves the Dynamic Duo,'” said Pike, a sophomore catcher. “I saw them walk her, and I said: All the reason for me to smack a hit into the outfield and put the run in.’ It gave me all the more eagerness to get a hit and start things off for our team.”

Pike singled up the middle to score Shaila Delea. Ann Marie Day followed with a bloop single into shallow right to score two more for a 3-0 lead. That’s all the defending state champs needed for a repeat.

“Most of the big games I’ve been involved in, the team that scores first usually wins the game,” said Sacopee coach Tim Vacchiano. “So I knew how important that first run is.” Georges Valley had the chance to strike first in the third. Loralie Franklin singled and moved to second on a fielder’s choice. Coach Rusty Worcester waved her around third on a Elena Bertocci single, but Franklin held up at third.

“It is a turning point in the game because it is the first run,” said Worcester. “It could have been a totally different ballgame. In this type of ballgame, whoever does score first puts a little extra pressure on the pitching and defense. We failed to capitalize on that.”

After getting the three runs in the fourth, the Hawks continually added to the lead. In the fifth, an error on a Delea grounder scored Colleen Donovan, who had tripled. Then Pike scored Britni Murch on a fielder’s choice in the sixth.

“It got our momentum going real easily,” said Pike. “It gave our team a spark and runs kept coming from there the next few innings.”

Libby held Georges Valley to three hits while the Hawks’ defense had just one error.

“This is the fourth year in a row that some of these kids have been in this game,” said Vacchiano.

Portland 3, Scarborough 1

GORHAM – Portland built a 3-0 lead and held off a late Scarborough rally to win the Western Maine Class A championship with 3-1 victory.

Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Scarborough loaded the bases but managed just one run in the inning. Katie Hutchinson came on in relief of Kate Brown to secure the final two outs and the win.

Portland took a 1-0 lead in the first when Ashley Anderson singled home Whitney Prior. Keri Foley made it 2-0 with a solo homer over the right-field fence in the fourth. A Prior single in the top of the seventh made it 3-0.

Scarborough got its lone run in the with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh. Brown and Hutchinson combined to hold Scarborough to one hit in the game.