STANDISH — Meranda Martin watched her older sister pitch and play for the Richmond Bobcats and win her share of championships in the process.

It set the bar high for the freshman hurler.

“I kept watching my sister play all four years, and I wanted to be out there playing with her,” Martin said.

Martin lived that dream Wednesday, pitching the Bobcats to a 7-2 win over Greenville for a fifth consecutive Western Class D title. Richmond advances to Saturday’s state game at Coffin Field in Brewer.

“It’s a lot more fun out here playing for myself,” said Martin, whose sister Leandra is now an assistant coach. “It’s fun watching but there’s more fun when you’re playing.”

Martin is one of a handful of current Bobcats that grew up watching their older sisters win titles playing Richmond softball. It was something Martin and catcher Camryn Hurley discussed prior to the championship game at Bailey Field at Saint Joseph’s College.

“My catcher and I were talking about it at the beginning of the game when we were warming up” Martin said. “We talked about how we never thought we’d be here. We always thought it would be our sisters, but we made it.”

Kelsie Obi, one of just two juniors on the team, admired her sister Chika, who is still a senior but chose not to play this year.

“I looked up to my sister a lot,” said Obi, who had a two-run single that opened the lead up in the second. “She did a great job behind the plate. She never played catcher before and then she started to practice and she was a great catcher after that.”

Though the Bobcats graduated nine seniors from last year’s championship team and have only three returning players, Richmond was fairly poised and opened the lead with seven runs in the second inning.

“Thank God,” said Richmond coach Rick Coughlin. “We didn’t do too much after that.”

Martin allowed just three hits and struck out five. The Lakers (13-6) were playing without senior outfielder Jasmine Senatus, who was away on vacation.

“The only girl that got a decent hit when we played before was the center fielder, and she wasn’t here,” said Martin, whose team beat Greenville 17-1 and 12-5 in the regular season. “I just mixed the pitches up and kept it low and played my game.”

Greenville pitcher Molly Foley scatted eight hits and kept the Bobcats in check for much of the game. That seven-run second, featuring two errors and two walks, proved too costly for the Lakers.

“That’s the way it’s been all year,” said Greenville coach Bill Foley. “We’re just not as consistent as we should be, but we made huge strides from the beginning to now.”

Emily Douin led Richmond (16-0) with three hits. Obi had two hits and two RBI. Kalah Patterson drove in a run with a hit.

Greenville didn’t get its first hit until a Lindsay Fenn single in the fourth. Grace Bilodeau also singled that inning. Danielle Mills had a double in the sixth.

“We don’t hit the long ball very well,” Foley said. “So we play a lot of small ball. When you’re down seven runs, you’re running out of time.”

Richmond broke the scoreless tie in a big way in the second. Patterson led off with a triple and scored on a one-out fielder’s choice. A Douin single plated Autumn Acord. Then Douin scored on an error on a  Hurley grounder. Obi then delivered a two-run singled and Patterson hit a sacrifice fly that made it 7-0.

“I was like ‘we’ve got to score some runs pretty soon here or they might beat us,'” Obi said. “That’s what I had in my mind. I knew I had to just swing away. Once I got that, I was like ‘Wow, good job to me because I wanted to get my teammates in.'”

Greenville got one in the  fourth when  Fenn singled and advanced on a sacrifice. She scored on a Foley fielder’s choice hit back to Martin. The Lakers got their second run in the sixth in similar fashion. Fenn walked and reached third on a  Mills double. Foley plated the run with another fielder’s choice back to Martin in the pitcher’s circle.

The early 7-0 lead allowed the Bobcats to settle in play with the game in their control.

“We had a couple of errors,” said Obi. “Every team does, but we did relax because we did get seven and we could just play our defense and hold that.”

Though another title for Richmond has become a regular occurrence, this year’s sucdess is still quite a feat considering the team features seven freshmen and three sophomores.

“The freshmen are really talented kids,” Coughlin said. “They’ve come a long way for us.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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