Holderness, n.h.
“I knew it was gone,” said the senior, who took a 1-1 pitch up in the strike zone so far over the center field fence that it bounced off the fence on an adjoining field.
“Gosh, that felt good,” she added.
While the win completed an undefeated season (19-0) for the top seeded Lakers, it was not easy. Gorham, with no seniors on the team, outhit the Lakers, 5-3, but Sunapee also got a home run from winning pitcher Katie Frederick, who was also tough when she had to be in the circle, as the Huskies left 13 runners on base.
While many high school athletes go through their four years without winning a championship, Hamilton and Frederick have now been on four state championship teams between softball and basketball.
“I never get sick of getting these things,” Frederick said as she put her fingers around the winner’s medallion.
But nobody collected championship medallions faster than Lakers senior Rachel Malanga. The last five teams she competed on — basketball and softball last year and volleyball, basketball and softball this school year — have all won championships.
“This is crazy,” Malanga said. “I’m a lucky girl. What a way to end it.”
Gorham, the No. 2 seed, came into the game with nearly as impressive a portfolio as Sunapee. The Huskies (18-2) had scored 193 runs going into Saturday’s game while Sunapee tallied 194. The Huskies’ only regular-season loss was 2-1 to Moultonborough which they avenged in the semifinals, 3-2.
“We just couldn’t get the hit when we needed it,” said Gorham coach Chris Partenope, who knows her young team is going to be good for awhile.
“We’re like a family here,” she said. “And like a lot of families we get dysfunctional once in a while, but I really like my team.”
Frederick battled herself a bit Saturday as she walked seven, gave up five hits and plunked two batters. She had to throw 132 pitches. But when it counted she came through as Gorham had runners on in every inning, but Frederick closed out five innings with strikeouts and got three strikeouts in the seventh inning.
“She was tough when she had to be,” her coach, Bonnie Cruz, said. “She knows when to bear down.”
She also got everyone’s attention in the first inning when she hit a two-out, nobody-on rope just out of the reach of the leaping Gorham center fielder, who crashed into the fence as the ball went over her head.
The score stayed 1-0 until the fifth, when Gorham tied it on a walk, hit batsmen and a Hannah Rivard single.
Lauren Grelinski pitched a complete game for Gorham. She allowed three hits, walked two and struck out four. Like Frederick, she also hit a couple of batters.
The teams played like champions defensively as there was just one error in the game.