Orono softball’s Severance strikes out 16 to lead Red Riots past Old Town

ORONO, Maine — Kristen Espling has been the head softball coach at Orono High School since 2011 and said she had never beaten arch-rival Old Town.

Now she has.

Sophomore righthander Jillian Severance threw a masterpiece, allowing just three hits and no earned runs with 16 strikeouts to lead the Class C Red Riots to a 6-3 win over the Class B Coyotes on Wednesday afternoon.

The hard-throwing Severance walked just one and struck out nine of the last 10 hitters she faced.

She threw 105 pitches of which 72 were strikes.

“I threw a lot of spins and my spins were great today,” said the 15-year-old Severance. “They have a lot of great hitters so I was trying to keep it out of the (hitting) zone.”

Severance tied up the Old Town hitters by coming inside on them, preventing them from extending their hands.

“That was definitely the plan,” said Severance.

“Her pitches were moving really good,” said Orono sophomore catcher Andrea Crocker.

Severance said she was “pretty happy” with her performance and credited her teammates with being “very encouraging which really helped me get through this game.”

Orono improved to 4-1 with its fourth straight win following a season-opening 6-2 loss to defending C North champion Bucksport. The win over Old Town was Orono’s third in three days.

Old Town fell to 1-2.

The Red Riots built a 5-0 lead with a run in the second inning and four in the third off Old Town starter Haley Sirois.

In the second, Ava Jurdak, another sophomore, belted a long double to left to lead off the inning, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Abby Haney’s run-producing grounder to shortstop.

In the third, Brylee McCollett walked to open the inning and reached third on one-out singles by Emma LaBelle and Crocker.

Severance aided her own cause by grounding a run-scoring single to left, and Jurdak drew a bases-loaded walk to force in another run.

A passed ball allowed the third run of the inning to score and Audra Brooks’ single knocked in the final run.

Old Town rallied to score all three of its runs in the fourth inning and all were unearned.

Natalie Fournier hit a sinking line drive to right field for a double, continued to third when the right fielder misplayed it and scored when the relay throw to third was errant.

Emily Wheeler walked, stole second and scored on a two-out throwing error by the shortstop.

Danica Brown, who had reached on the error, scored on Bri Trimm’s well-hit double to right center.

But Severance bore down and retired the last 10 hitters she faced, and her teammates provided her with an insurance run in the fourth off reliever Arabel Milligan on consecutive singles by Sophia Pitt, LaBelle and Crocker.

Crocker hit a long single to the base of the fence in center field for the RBI.

“We have been having a really good season. Everybody has been getting some good hits,” said Crocker.

“I liked the fact we never let up,” said Espling. “We had three games this week and I didn’t know how things were going to shake out but they rose to the occasion.

“This is a great group that perseveres. Jill led us in the circle and has all week. We’ve gotten timely hits and we scored some runs which is huge,” Espling added.

LaBelle, Crocker and Pitt each had two singles for the Red Riots.

In addition to the doubles by Fournier and Trimm, Old Town also received a bunt single from Taylor Madden.

Old Town first baseman Brown made the play of the game, snaring a foul pop-up by Severance in her bare hand after it popped out of her glove.

Both teams will play again on Friday at 4:30 as Orono will entertain Mount View of Thorndike while Old Town will host John Bapst of Bangor.