She didn’t finish the way she might have liked, but Sam St. Hilaire ended her illustrious softball career giving it everything she had.

Her final three games for Leavitt came over three consecutive days, two of which went 12 innings. During that span, she struck out 32 batters and allowed one earned run.

“If you take the three playoff games – Medomak, Cony, Brunswick – she pitched all 31 innings, and the only earned run she gave up was the last run in the Brunswick game,” said Leavitt coach Pete Higgins. “That’s just amazing.”

Brunswick emerged the victor in its semifinal game against the Hornets, ending Leavitt’s two-year run as Class A state champions. It certainly wasn’t because of a lack of effort on St. Hilaire’s part.

“She was totally disappointed, but she gave everything she possibly could,” said Higgins.

The fact that the Hornets came close at all to a third straight trip to the Eastern Maine regional final was primarily because of their standout pitcher. Between her pitching and hitting prowess, St. Hilaire was a significant reason the Hornets did as well as they did.

“We wouldn’t have been where we were without her,” said Higgins. “She was THE player for us.”

St. Hilaire has been named the Sun Journal Softball Player of the Year for the second straight season.

St. Hilaire was one of the most dominant pitchers in the state last year and helped carry a Hornet team to a second straight state title last year. The Hornets became even younger and lost experience and offensive clout. That left St. Hilaire shouldering an even bigger load.

Her goal was to better her performance of a year ago. That proved to be a daunting task, but St. Hilaire still managed a superb season.

“I had a pretty good season my junior year, and I felt I should have an even better season but I didn’t,” said St. Hilaire, who will attend Division II Delta State University in Mississippi. “That’s what I was aiming for but it didn’t happen.”

She tried to hone new pitches and worked through some adjustments during the season, but by year’s end, she was pitching as well as ever.

“I went through a change,” she said. “I went through a transition from being faster with a little less movement, and I think that was the problem was at the beginning of the season. By the end, I started to get the movement back a little bit.”

She pitched all 140 innings for Leavitt and went 14-5. Her ERA was 0.61, with 192 strikeouts and 24 walks. Her pitching numbers weren’t as awesome as the year before but were pretty close. Her hitting stats, on the other hand, were even better.

She batted .545 with a slugging percentage of .945. She also drove in 18 runs, scored 19 and stole seven bases.

“She’s a total package,” said Higgins. “Her pitching stats might not have been as good as last year, but there’s really nothing she can’t do. She really is the total package and a fantastic athlete to work with.”

With the graduation of Kristen Healy and Gretchen Conn, St. Hilaire served as the Hornets offensive catalyst and producer. Higgins says that when St. Hilaire was on, the Hornets fared pretty well.

“I knew I would need to have a little power hitting at times,” she said. “Gretchen and Kristen were awesome. They hit runs in almost every game. So I had pressure on me for that. I really had to help spark something.”

She was the recipient of the Miss Maine Softball Award presented by the Maine Softball Coaches Association after a fine performance at the Senior All-Star games in Augusta. She scored two early runs and struck out five batters in two innings pitched.

She finished her career with some impressive numbers, even though she split pitching duties her first two seasons. She totalled 434 innings, allowed 40 runs and struck out 524 while posting a 0.64 ERA. Offensively, she finished with a .451 average, 72 runs scored and 37 stolen bases.

“If you look at what she’s done in four years, it’s amazing,” said Higgins. “There’s nothing negative about her. She’s the all-around player. Around here, she’s the kind of player that kids are going to look up to in the future. She’s the standard.”