Jessicca Girsa from Stearns winds up to throw a pitch to Bangor Christian batter Sarah Curioli during their Class D softball game Friday afternoon in Bangor. Photo by Chris Lessner.
BANGOR- Jessicca Girsa did it with the bat and with her arm Friday afternoon to lead the Stearns Minutemen to their second win of the season. Girsa had two doubles and a single and scored twice and knocked in five runs and in the circle shut down the home Bangor Christian Patriots allowing only five hits as Stearns cruised to a 18-0 five inning win (mercy rule) in a Class D North softball game.
Girsa allowed five singles in her five innings of work allowing only one walk and striking out four. Stearns is now 2-0 and have outscored their two opponents Katahdin and Bangor Christian 30-0.
Abby Russell also had two hits and two runs batted in and scored two runs and Maddy Morrison chipped in with two hits three runs batted in and also a pair of runs.
Bangor Christian got two singles from Syd Frost and also singles from Kelsey Desroches, Emily Wilbur and Abby Cross as the Patriots dropped to 0-2. Ashley Collins went five innings in the circle allowing 17 earned runs on 12 hits while walking six and striking out three.
Stearns coach Nick Cullen said after the game, “We started off slow today. Had a hard time getting our bats on the ball. Our defense really carried the first two innings and then we finally started to hit a little bit and getting the ball in play. Girsa did a really good job throwing strikes. She isn’t overpowering but she is gonna throw strikes and the defense does a really good job”. When asked about the expectations on the season Coach Cullen responded, “We have a pretty good hitting team, one through nine we are pretty balanced. We look forward to a great season. Our goal is to get a crack at Richmond again. We didn’t feel like we gave them our best game. So we hope to get down there again, if we play well enough to get there”.
Stearns returns to action Monday at home against Schenck at 4:30 p.m. while Bangor Christian will also play Monday when they travel to Deer Isle-Stonington at 4 p.m.
STEARNS (2-0) 0 8 1 6 3- 18 12 0
BGRCHR (0-2) 0 0 0 0 0- 0 5 2
Left on base- Stearns 6, Bangor Christian 5
