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AUBURN — The improbable playoff run of the Edward Little softball team is still alive.

The Red Eddies, the seventh seed in the Class A North playoffs, beat top-seeded Bangor 4-1 for the regional championship on Tuesday at Central Maine Community College. Edward Little (13-6) will meet South champion Windham on Saturday in the state final.

“It feels great,” said Edward Little senior center fielder Lexi Kelsea, who had two hits. “It feels amazing to get this far.”

Saturday will be the fourth time Edward Little has played in a Class A final. Its last appearance was in 1997, the back end of back-to-back championships for the program.

Tuesday’s win continued an impressive run for the Red Eddies, who beat the top three seeds in the region.

“(The team is made up of) puzzle pieces that we put together, and they trusted us to put those puzzle pieces together as the season went on,” said Edward Little coach Elaine Derosby. “We have a lot of pieces that can do small things, and that makes us completely successful. We rely on speed, we rely on pitching. We still have one more (game to go), but we’re going to savor this for the next 24 to 48 hours.”

Derosby’s father, Gene Keene, was the head coach of the 1997 Edward Little team. Her sister, Nicole Chapman (then Nicole Keene), one of the current team’s pitching coaches, was a member of the ’97 squad.

Edward Little was led Tuesday by the pitching duo of senior Kassidy Lobb and sophomore Chloe LeBlanc, who combined to hold Bangor to three hits. The Rams (14-5) were hitless after the second inning.

Offensively, the Red Eddies were paced by Kelsea, catcher Elizabeth Galway and second baseman Kyle Lebrun, who each had two hits.

Bangor’s Abby Folsom, went 1 for 3 with an RBI. Sophomore pitcher Emily Tripp struck out nine batters while walking two.

The Rams scored their lone run in the top of the first inning, but the Red Eddies responded with two runs in the bottom half, highlighted by Lebrun’s RBI single.

Edward Little never lost the lead and added insurance runs in the third inning, when Lobb scored on an error, and the sixth, when third baseman Emily Poulin plated Allie Michaud with an RBI single.

“Seeing everybody’s attitude (stay up) the whole time, no matter what (happened), was amazing to see,” Kelsea said.

Lobb was steady for four innings, keeping the Rams to an unearned run on three hits. LeBlanc, a lefty, relieved Lobb in the fifth inning and was nearly perfect, striking out four and hitting one batter.

“I knew I could do it, and I trusted my defense; I knew they had my back,” LeBlanc said. “That was really what got me through it and helped me stay calm.”

“They both have started for us. Kassidy, as the senior, has the experience for us,” Derosby said. “She was doing her thing. Chloe has had some big moments herself this season. They support each other, and they’re different, righty and lefty. It’s something we’ve thought about all season long. It was in our bag of tricks. They believed in that process, and we’ve done it a couple of times. They were comfortable (splitting time).”

The two teams met in the regular season, with Bangor picking up a 5-4 win on May 17. The Rams made an extreme turnaround this spring, going from just two wins in 2024 season, to 14 this year.

“Edward Little is a great team and fought the whole game. It’s obviously not the result we wanted, but the season as a whole is something to be proud of,” said Bangor coach Sophia Sciarappa. “This is something the team has been working on for the last two years, and it’s a bit bittersweet in this way. But so much to be proud of.”