The Gray-New Gloucester softball team got a jump in its Western B championship game when Alex Thompson drilled a lead-off triple to start the game.

But things quickly swung the other way. Greely senior pitcher Danielle Cimino struck out the next two batters and got a pop out to escape the threat.

“I had to manage the inning,” said Cimino. “I had to be mentally tough. I couldn’t let it get to me. I had to stay calm and within myself.”

Though the Patriots would later get the lead first, Gray-NG quickly watched the upper hand slip away again. Greely took the lead in the bottom of the third and more missed opportunities for the Patriots proved costly as the Rangers claimed the 2-1 victory.

“I told them to keep their heads up,” said Gray-NG coach Amanda Harmon. “They should be proud. It’s an accomplishment to get to this game. It definitely wasn’t the way we wanted it to end. We played hard to get here and fought for every game.”

It’s the first regional title for Greely (15-4) since 2002. The Rangers will play the winner of the Eastern B game Thursday between Gardiner and Oceanside. The Class B state game is Saturday at Saint Joseph’s College at 11 a.m.

“The girls have improved so much from day one,” said Greely coach Jess Gomez, a former standout at Forest Hills and Maine. “It’s absolutely astonishing to see that improvement, to see the way they play, the way they hustle. They play together and they’re a great definition of team.”

It was two runs in the third that won the game for Greely. That was after Gray-NG took a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning. The Rangers took advantage of two hits and two Gray-NG errors.

“We always get our energy back,” said junior first baseman Mykaela Twitchell, who drove in the winning run. “We always have an inning where we come back. When we got runners at first and second, we had our engine going and we got hits. We were able to execute.”

The Patriots had a number of opportunities but either left runners on base or ran themselves out of innings. Gray-NG had five hits, two coming from pitcher Steph Greaton and Thompson. Greaton held Greely to just three hits.

After Thompson was stranded at third in the first, Anna Knapp drew a lead-off walk in the second. She never advanced and a nice sliding catch by Hayley Felkel in center helped the Rangers end that opportunity. Gray-NG got a single  with one out by Emily Hotham in the fourth, but she was thrown out stealing. When Greaton singled in the fifth, courtesy runner Breanna Bozzuto was doubled off first thanks to the hustle of second baseman Alexa Faietta.

“You can’t take it back,” said Harmon of the stranded runner in the first. “We just had to work through it. We didn’t drop our heads. We came out and played solid D. The girls have been playing well as a team, committed and focused. We came back and gave them some challenges the next few innings.”

The Patriots (14-6) took the lead in the third When Greaton led off with a double and Thompson had an infield hit. Bozzuto was thrown out at the plate on a Wilkins hit back to Cimino. After Kaelyn Woods was hit by a pitch, Zoe Adams hit a sacrifice fly to plate Thompson. Cimino got the final out with a strike out and the Patriots stranded two.

In the bottom of the inning, the Rangers came right back. With one out, Sarah Felkel singled and Haley Felkel reached on an error. A second out moved them over. Then Cimino dropped a bunt in front of the plate. Greaton bobbled the ball and Cimino beat the throw to first while Sarah Felkel scored.

“It was a squeeze,” said Cimino. “I knew I had to get it down. It wasn’t the greatest pitch. I was a little worried because it had a little air underneath it, but it dropped and it was far enough up from them to get to it.”

Twitchell followed with a singled to plate Haley Felkel and gave the Rangers the lead.

“Fortunately, I was in that same situation in the Fryeburg game,” said Twichell, whose team beat the Raiders 2-1 in the semifinals. “So I had some experience going into it. I was looking for a pitch I could hit. I’ve been working on the outside pitches and luckily, it was there.”

The Patriots got some solid defense of their own. Knapp made a nice running grab in right while Thompson made a tough catch at short. Though Gray-NG held Greely within reach, the Patriots had just one hit and two base runners the rest of the game.

“You can’t have this game be the one where those things happen,” said Harmon of her team’s costly mistakes in the field. “We could have dropped our head and let it affect us more than it did. We kept our composure and worked hard. We just didn’t have enough inning to get over it.”

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