Sports Desk

There are a lot of peaks and valleys (pardon the pun) in every sport because there's a fine line between walking away on top or coming up short in the quest. Still, it's the team or individuals who will have an opportunity to be major contributors, in the final outcome.

The aforementioned scenarios were evident during several events throughout last week.

On Friday, the Mountain Valley baseball team pulled out a 4-3 win against Wiscasset at Hosmer Field. The eventual winning run scored in the bottom of the sixth inning on back-to-back doubles by Zak Radcliffe and Izaak Mills. It was Radcliffe who had driven in two runs with his hit and then raced home on Mills' gapper. Mills was the winning pitcher and was a repeat hitter along with Dylan Akers.

Meanwhile, the Mountain Valley softball team was on the opposite end of a one-run game. The Lady Falcons had jumped out to a 2-0 lead. However, Wiscasset responded by scoring five runs in the second inning. The positive start was derailed by five MV errors, hindering a solid performance by pitcher Brooke Dolloff. The offense was led by Delaney Paterson, who hit a double and a towering home run. Shannon Laubauskas belted a triple.

The Dirigo softball team certainly knows all about one-run games because a majority of its four wins and six losses have been decided in the late innings. In less that 24 hours, the Cougars experienced jubilation to having to swallow a bitter pill.

Dirigo fell behind Saint Doms, 9-5, but scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth. The offense had been led by shortstop Tasha DeRoche, who smashed two home runs over the fences at Marble Park. Alyssa Charity, Natalie Bolduc and DeRoche combined for a majority of the Cougars hits and seven RBIs. In the seventh, Alyssa Wade singled and eventually reached third. DeRoche, who had been intentionally walked earlier, was at bat when the pitch was delivered high off the backstop. Wade alertly raced home with the winning run. Ambyr Wilson was the winning pitcher.

The very next afternoon, Dirigo was leading, but Hall Dale rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning to win with a two-run homer at Marble Park. Wade allowed six hits in a strong pitching performance.

Dirigo's Josh Turbide and Addy Fuller have each qualified for the state singles tournament. In Region four, Turbide and Fuller both won early pro-set matches in the qualifying round, Turbide beat Dylan Price of Madison 6-4, 6-4, while Fuller dispatched Lynsay Allen of Spruce Mountain 6-2, 6-2.

Other competitors included Alex Durfee and Devin Hamel of MV and Dirigo players Jeremy Grignon, Thomas Barnett, Betsy Noyes and Ryanne Daily.