Softball: 2021 Varsity Maine All-State team
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Chantelle Bouchard, Biddeford junior, catcher: Bouchard swept the SMAA awards this year, earning honors as defensive player of the year, offensive player of the year and player of the year. She helped the Tigers to the Class A state title game by hitting a team-high .513 with six home runs, 36 RBI and 20 runs. She had a .976 fielding percentage.
Jaycie Christopher, Skowhegan junior, shortstop: A smooth fielder, Christopher was a big reason the River Hawks won the Class A state title. Batting second in the lineup, she led the team in hits, batting .602 with 10 doubles, one home run, 32 runs, 22 RBI and 21 stolen bases. Christopher has verbally committed to play basketball at Boston University.
Local talent sparking USM softball team’s best season
The Huskies are off to a 22-1-1 start, best in the program s 46-year history, using strong pitching and stronger hitting to overwhelm opponents.
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Former Biddeford High star Erin Martin is batting .310 this spring for a University of Southern Maine softball team that’s off to a 22-1-1 start.
Cullen McIntyre photo/Courtesy of USM athletics
GORHAM Erin Martin won a high school softball state championship at Biddeford High. So did Kirsten Pelletier at Messalonskee. Ashley Tinsman played on a top-notch high school program at Cape Elizabeth, then three years at the University of Maine.
Softball: After lost season of 2020, teams are getting back to basics
Thornton Academy is among many teams focusing on fundamentals because of young and inexperienced players.
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Thornton Academy softball coach Tony Miner hits grounders to his infielders during a practice earlier this month in Saco.
Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Finally, after the ball rolled away from several players, he stopped the drill.
“This is an under-control drill,” he said. “Some of you are out of control. You’ve got to get your body under control in order to receive the ball and to throw it.”
The drill resumed, and nary a ball hit the ground again.
Gorham’s Mackenzie Holmes becomes an elite player on an elite team
Thrust into a bigger role, she responded by leading No. 9 Indiana in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots while earning first-team all-Big Ten honors.
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Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes blocks a shot by Maryland’s Ashley Owusu during a game in early January. Maryland and Indiana are the top two seeds in the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament.
Julio Cortez/Associated Press
Sometimes it’s all a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Mackenzie Holmes was discovered by the brother of an Indiana University assistant coach while she was playing in an AAU tournament for the Maine Firecrackers. He immediately called his brother, assistant Rhet Wierzba, and told him that he needed to see Holmes.