The Hall-Dale softball team enters this season with a chance to accomplish something no other softball team in state history has: Win five consecutive state championships.
The Bulldogs are the four-time defending Class C champions. During those four seasons, Hall-Dale has a 74-2 record. The Bulldogs went undefeated for three straight years before their 62-game winning streak was snapped last season by eventual Class B champion Nokomis.
Hall-Dale is in rarefied air. Only two other softball teams in Maine have been four-time defending champions, Madison (in Class C) in 1998, and Richmond (Class D) in 2017. The possibility of making history is not lost on Hall-Dale.
“That would be a very perfect ending (to a career),” said senior pitcher Lucy Gray. “Our losses in state championships this year (in other sports), it would probably mean everything (if we won a fifth).”
Many members of Hall-Dale’s senior class enter the season with a chip on their shoulders after losing in a second straight Class C girls basketball state final, as well as in the Class C South final in field hockey. There’s also the constant pressure that comes with being a defending champion, or in this case, a four-time defending state champion.
“We’ve always had pressure on all of our sports, every single season,” said senior third baseman Jade Graham. “Hall-Dale, in girls sports, is a known name in Class C. There’s no one single sport that we’re overly bad at … The pressure that always comes with it, I think we just take it (and run with it). We’re so used to it that it’s second nature. It’s almost weird not having pressure.”
Added senior shortstop Torie Tibbetts: “It’s (possibly) five in a row, so there is a lot of pressure. We know who the other (contenders) are who are going to be tough. We just need to keep focused on the main goal and not let the other (factors) get us down during the season.”
The season won’t come without its challenges. The Bulldogs are replacing at least half of their starting lineup, including pitcher Ashlynn Donahue, four-year starting catcher and slugger Zoe Soule. Gray will make the move from shortstop to the pitching circle, while former first baseman Mira Skehan takes over the catching duties.
Only two other teams can possibly relate to the pressure the Bulldogs will be facing, and members of both teams can testify that pressure does exist, particularly in the state final.
Madison’s Erin Alward tries to make a tag against Carrabec on May 13, 1998. Alward was the starting third baseman on the 1998 Madison team that just missed winning a fifth straight Class C state title. Morning Sentinel file photo
1998 Madison Bulldogs: The closest to history
The 1998 Madison softball team was so close to winning its fifth straight title that the Bulldogs were practically touching the trophy.
The Bulldogs had a lead in the seventh inning of the Class C state championship game at Ward Field in Standish but gave up three runs and lost 4-3 in eight innings to Searsport.
Like Hall-Dale, Madison had several spots in the lineup to fill entering the season, most notably in the circle. Longtime starter Denelle Surman, who lost just two games in four years, graduated after the fourth title. The duties were capably handled by the duo of Jen Dawes and Erin Garland.
“In ’98, we weren’t even expecting to make it to states again,” said Erin Alward, the team’s senior third baseman. “Walking in as a senior, having played with Denelle for the three years before that, it was a big hole. When Jen Dawes and Erin Garland stepped up, it surprised us to get to states. We certainly had the drive and the experience (to get back), and we were really close to winning it.”
Madison had a potent lineup, led by the Alward sisters, Erin (.429 batting average) and Amy (.333 average), who hit at the top of the lineup. Maggie Scott led Madison with 25 RBI entering the state final.
“Going into the year, there were certainly questions,” said Al Veneziano, who coached the Bulldogs to three of their four Class C titles while also serving as the longtime head coach of the girls basketball team and, later, the school’s athletic director. “At the beginning of the season, we were really starting to see things come together. The kids really liked playing with each other. Once the season got rolling, we did see (states) as a possibility.”
“Just the idea that we were in that position (to win a fifth straight title) brings pressure. It brings pressure from within. We all want to succeed, we all want to do the best that we can.”
With the game tied 3-3 in the eighth, a two-out error allowed Searsport to score the winning run and capture the title. The Bulldogs finished 15-4.
“To see it get pulled away, in one inning, it was ‘ugh.'” said Alward, now 45, of Belgrade. “And that’s all it took, was one inning. It hurt, and I remember looking around at my teammates and seeing them very upset (after the game) … It would have been fabulous to have won that state championship, but just to get there was unbelievable, too.”
Camryn Hurley, bottom, Cassidy Harriman, left, Sidney Tilton and Meranda Martin celebrate after Richmond beat Greenville in the Class D South championship game on June 13, 2017. The Bobcats lost in the state final, snapping their streak of four straight championships. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
2017 Richmond Bobcats: A dominant streak snapped
In 2017, the Richmond softball team was in the midst of a dynastic run. The Bobcats entered the season as the four-time defending Class D champions and would reach their eighth consecutive state final. If that wasn’t enough, Richmond also entered the season with an 88-game winning streak, which still stands at the sixth-longest softball streak in the nation, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
“We were just starting to realize (in 2017) what we were doing, and we were trying to stay humble about it,” said Camryn Whittemore, then Camryn Hurley, the team’s starting third baseman. “We felt some pressure, but we also felt that whatever happens happens, because we wanted to put a positive spin on it. We didn’t want to be let down too hard if (the streak snapped).”
Because of graduations, head coach Tony Martin did some maneuvering with the lineup early in the season, moving Hurley from second base to third, Caitlin Kendrick from the outfield to shortstop, and Bri Lancaster to second base.
Offensively, the team was led by junior Sydney Tilton, who had a .630 batting average while clubbing seven home runs and driving in 34 runs. Tilton also shared pitching duties with senior starter Meranda Martin, striking out 36 batters in 27 innings.
“(The pressure of the streak) was for sure there,” said Whittemore, now 26, of Skowhegan. “We would talk about it during warmups, like, ‘What (number) is this?’ We knew how lucky to be in the position we were in, so we didn’t want to take it for granted too much. But for most of the time, we knew we had (games) in the bag. We had worked together for so long, we were pretty confident in our team’s abilities.”
“There was definitely that pressure there, but I don’t think everyone (on the team) was feeling that pressure,” said Meranda Martin. “Definitely pressure going into the state game, like, ‘Oh my god, this is a state game.’ I don’t know if a lot of people understood the accomplishment of winning that many games and state championships in a row.”
Once again, the Bobcats reached the state title game unbeaten. It took a Herculean effort by one player to end Richmond’s streak. Penobscot Valley freshman Leine McKechnie threw a no-hitter and struck out 11, and also clubbed a three-run homer off Tilton in the sixth inning to lead the Howlers to a 4-0 win.
“You’ve got to give credit to that team and (McKechnie),” said Martin, now 26, who went on to play softball at Southern Maine Community College and Saint Joseph’s College and will be inducted into the SMCC Hall of Fame on May 9. “It sucks to lose, but my dad had repeated to us (after the game) that there hasn’t been that many people in high school that had won that many Gold Gloves as we won. It’s pretty rare to get to experience that … Going off to college, there were a lot times where more people knew about that (streak) than I had thought. When you’re in the moment, you don’t realize how big a moment that really is.
“(I would tell Hall-Dale) to just go into the season with a positive attitude and play your heart out, and what happens happens. Don’t think about the streak. Go into every game like a normal game. Go into every game with a positive attitude, no matter what happens during the game.”
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