TOPSHAM — Mt. Ararat’s first high school softball game of the season on Wednesday was just about as bad as it gets.
The Eagles were no-hit and soundly defeated by talented Skowhegan, 26-0, at Lewiston High School.
Mt. Ararat looked for instant redemption on Thursday in its “home opener” against Mt. Blue, and despite a 7-4 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference setback, the Eagles battled from the first out to the last.
Mt. Ararat put at least one runner on base in each inning, pounded out seven hits and worked nine walks against Mt. Blue pitchers Maddy Smith and Makayla Gross.
“Yesterday was horribly ugly, and part of it was the field with no fences, playing Skowhegan and being our first day outside,” said Mt. Ararat coach Al Graffam, whose 0-2 Eagles will visit Morse on Monday at 4 p.m. “Today, if our season would have started in about the fourth inning, we would have been right there.”
Mt. Blue (2-0), which opened with an easy win at Camden Hills, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame as Macey Phillips and Ace Provencher hit long back-to-back to home runs over the left-center field fence off Mt. Ararat starting pitcher Megan Reed.
“It was hard to grip the ball and swing the bat. It was cold,” said Mt. Blue coach Ron Smith, referring to the windy, cloudy and at times rainy conditions. “To get a couple gave our kids some confidence. Those runs turn out to make a huge difference.”
“We had a great start and were ready for today,” Phillips said. “It was a good game, and they put up a good fight. In the end, we came out on top.”
Mt. Ararat scored its first run of the year in the bottom of the first. Bella West (three walks, sacrifice fly, RBI) walked, Jaden Lohr singled and Emily Wormwood walked to load the bases. Camille Rowe hit a sinking liner that glanced off the glove of diving Mt. Blue second baseman Wylie Post. West scored on the play, but Post recovered and threw a strike to catcher Rylee Briggs to retire Lohr on a close play at the plate.
Cougars extend lead
Mt. Blue increased its lead to 5-1 in the third as the Eagles committed three costly errors. Jacelyn Daggett singled in a run for the only hit of the inning as the Cougars took advantage of four walks.
Two more runs scored in the Mt. Blue fourth, with Phillips husting into second with a double ahead of a leadoff walk to Angela Guppy (two walks, two runs scored).
“Macey is very important to us, a four-year starter and a captain this year. The whole world needs a kid like Macey,” Ron Smith said.
Provencher dropped a bunt to score Guppy, and Phillips came home on an Eagles error for a 7-1 advantage.
After Smith went the first four innings (six strikeouts, five walks, three hits), Mt. Blue reliever Makayla Gross ran into trouble in the sixth as Mt. Ararat struck for three runs to put a scare into the Cougars.
With one out, Bre Hunter walked and Amanda O’Neill was hit by a pitch. A single by Bre McCourt loaded the bases, and Ema Hawkes singled to right field for the Eagles’ second run. A sacrifice fly by West and an RBI single by Lohr brought the Eagles to 7-4 heading to the seventh.
“Today was a lot better,” said Lohr, who was 2-for-4. “We got a lot more confidence going into today with our home field and boundaries that we could hit and field with. We feel a lot better today.
“We are a very young team and I think that is good for us. We can work together, and we have been and will be together for a long time. We will get into this season once we are consistently outside. When we can consistently hit with people on base, we will give these teams a run for their money.”
Maddy Smith returned to pitch the seventh for Mt. Blue, and after allowing a two-out walk, picked up her seventh strikeout of the contest to record both the mound win and the save.
Reed tossed six innings on two stints to the mound. She struck out nine, walked seven and permitted six hits. Gabby West tossed a 1-2-3 sixth for the Eagles.
“We will continue to plug away, with a good group of kids that work hard,” Graffam said.
Mt. Blue returns to action on Monday at home against Waterville.

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