STANDISH — Carla Tripp waited for her pitch.

But the Fryeburg junior catcher never saw it, ultimately settling for a walk.

“I wanted it right down the middle,” said Tripp. “She was pitching me inside or trying the change up and I didn’t like those.”

Tripp faced 21 pitches during that at-bat. Though it didn’t lead to anything more than a walk in the third inning, it had ramifications an inning later.

Greely’s Dani Cimino had matched Fryeburg’s Sarah Harriman pitch for pitch in the early going Thursday in their Western B championship game at St. Joseph’s College. After her grueling and exasperating duel with Tripp in the hot sun, Cimino was never the same.

Fryeburg took advantage of a mentally taxed Greely club in the fourth, scoring eight runs on four errors that held up in an 8-1 win over the Rangers.

“That was huge,” Fryeburg coach Fred Apt said of Tripp’s at-bat. “I think Dani got a little tired.”

Cimino had already thrown more than 60 pitches by that point and finished with 130. Harriman only threw 59 and allowed two hits in the victory.

It was the fifth straight regional title for the Raiders (18-1) and the 150th career win for Apt. Fryeburg will play Old Town on Saturday in Brewer at 3 p.m.

Of the 21 pitches, Tripp fouled off 15 of them. Tripp said she’d take a deep breath and relax inbetween each pitch, but Cimino clearly was getting frustrated. She finally walked her with a full count.

“I just wanted to help my team out,” said Tripp, who led the charge last in Saturday’s in Fryeburg’s seventh inning rally to beat Gray-New Gloucester. “When I was up there, I just wanted to keep battling for the one I wanted.”

When Tripp drew that walk in the third, it gave Fryeburg two runners on base with two outs, but that threat was quickly squashed on a runner’s interference call.

“All the times that we mess up, it gives us motivation to come back even stronger,” said Tripp.

Greely took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth when Cimino drilled a Harriman pitch over the left-center fence for the first hit of the game for the Rangers. She’d add a single in the seventh as the only two hits Harriman allowed.

In the bottom of the inning, the Ranger unravelled and the Raiders took advantage.

“I thought as a team we saw that one- run lead on the board and we decided to relax a little,” said Greely coach Sarah Jamo. “That’s how we came out defensively in that inning. We were playing not to lose at that point.”

Maggie McConkey led off with a single in the fourth. She raced home without stopping from first when Greely botched a Harriman grounder.  Another error and a fielder’s choice loaded the bases for Emily Davidson. Her triple cleared the bases to make it 4-1.

“Emily’s been struggling,” said Apt. “She just got a new bat. We put her in the line up at the last minute. We told her she was going to hit today and she came through for us.”

Fryeburg added to the lead with two-run singles by Maddy Smith and Harriman for the 8-1 lead.

Greely couldn’t counter that and only had one hit the rest of the way, a one-out single in the seventh by Cimino.

“This team has come a long way,” said Apt. “I’m proud of them all but these girls worked really hard to get here.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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