STANDISH – The Eastern Class B Regional Champion Oceanside softball team made the trip to St. Joseph's College of Maine to take on the Western Class B Regional Champion Greely for the State Class B title in an 11 a.m. game Saturday.

After five innings of play the score was 1-0 Greely and it was a pitchers match up that had everyone on the edge of their seats until Oceanside came to bat in the sixth inning where they scored three runs and then followed that up with five more in the top of the seventh to take the 8-1 lead into the final half an inning of play.

Rachel Frye struck out the first batter, the second batter flew out to center fielder Hannah Plourde. The next batter walked and then a simple ground ball to Brooke Dugan at third who fired across the diamond for the final out to Kennadi Grover and the Oceanside Mariner softball team is your 2013 State Class B Champions.

This is the first state championship in the short history of Oceanside since the merger of Georges Valley High School and Rockland District High School.

Greely struck first in the second inning after a fly out to center field Miranda Moore singled took second on a walk to Charlotte Benoit. Aubrey Mann then singled scoring Moore. A ground out to third and Greely takes a 1-0 lead, but strands two.

Greely's Danielle Cimino had a no hitter going into the fifth inning when Hannah Plourde singled, but she was gunned down trying to steal third and a strikeout followed to end the inning.

In the top of the sixth inning Oceanside got things going when Emma Davis laid down a nice bunt that Cimino picked up and threw wide of first base with the ball bouncing off the fence and to the outfield allowing Davis to hustle all the way to third. After a pop out to second base. Frye then laid down a bunt that the third baseman picked up, turned to look Davis back to third and never got the throw off to first allowing Frye to reach first, see second wide open and taking off for the bag. With runners on second, Abby Hersom pinch running for Frye, and Davis still at third Kennadi Grover sent a long fly ball down the first base line. Greely right fielder Benoit made a great effort with the ball landing in her glove and bouncing out and rolling away allowing Davis and Hersom to score on a close play at the plate for the 3-1 lead.

Frye retired the sides 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth. The top of the seventh was the Mariners inning they had been waiting for all game scoring five runs to take the 8-1 lead. After Curtis grounded out hard to shortstop Plourde singled, went to second when Caitlin Raye was hit by a pitch. After a double steal by Plourde and Raye, Davis walked to load the bases with one out. Brooke Dugan then ripped a single to left scoring Plourde and Raye and putting Davis on third. Grover then hit a ground ball through the hole between short and third scoring Davis and Dugan who had stolen second base. Grover stole second and scored on Molly Mellor's RBI single making it 8-1 Oceanside.

In the bottom of the seventh Frye went to work retiring the first two batters on a strikeout and a fly out. The next batter walked breaking a string of 10 straight batters retired. With a ground out to third the game was over.

Frye pitched seven innings for the Mariners allowing one run on four hits and 4 walks while striking out three.

"Tremendous, tremendous kid great player, pitcher, but even a better young lady," said Oceanside coach Rusty Worcester. "She just means so much to the girls and the program. She is the leader of the team with her pitching and the thing I think about is from day one she is throwing to a freshmen catcher [Ari Curtis] and she just took her under her wing and helped her with her catching, learning the things they do and have done for the past four years. She is just a great, great leader, and all the seniors stepped it up with their leadership."

Danielle Cimino went the distance for Greely allowing eight runs, five earned, on six hits and one walk while striking out nine in the loss.

By the end of the fifth inning with just one hit, most any coach would be a nervous wreck, but coach Worcester, he just plain has too much faith in this team.

"Actually I hate to say this but I never get nervous, years ago maybe, but with this group the fact is they are a team, they gel well together," said coach Worcester. "If it's meant to be it is meant to be and I felt really confident they were going to get it done, and they thought they were going to get it done. It was a wonderful thing to watch."

The coaching staff of the Mariners are a huge help to coach Worcester. Especilly John Frye who has been around a long time, 13 years to be exact with Worcester, and he has enjoyed it to the max.This is the third state championship the two have won together, two in class C and this Class B one.However this could be the last for Frye for a while. With two daughters having gone through the program, Frye has a son, Travis, that plays baseball and is a sophomore and Frye may want to just go watch some baseball for a couple of years. That is a tough decision to make, one that many parents have to make when they have children playing in different sports.

"I'm not sure," said Frye, "I have a son who is a sophomore and plays baseball so I might just go watch some baseball for awhile. This is going to make it a lot harder. I love working with these girls, this was one of those seasons where we were able to start teaching again, past teams were pretty talented teams and now these girls are right up there with them. Spending this year of development has been a lot of fun, some frustrations, but a lot of fun."

Click here for a photo gallery from the state championship game.

Oceanside  0  0  0  0  0  3  5  8  6  0
Greely         0  1   0  0  0  0  0  1  4  3
Wp - Frye
LP - Cimino

Repeat hitters: OSide, Plourde (2 singles); Greely, none
Extra Base Hits: OSide, None; Greely Elyse Dinan

Hits for OSide: Dugan, Frye, Grover, Mellor, Plourde.
Hits for Greely: Haley Felkel, Dinan, Moore, and Mann.

Ron Hawkes can be reached at sports@penbaypilot.com