The fans who stayed outside under blankets and layers of clothing saw a rare feat Wednesday afternoon as Hall-Dale hosted Madison in softball action. In the first inning, Hall-Dale senior pitcher Jocelyn Tripp struck out the side on the minimum nine pitches.

PITTSFIELD — Maine Central Institue has hired new varsity coaches for boys basketball and soccer, as well as field hockey.

Frank McGrady takes over the Huskies boys basketball program. McGrady coached the JV boys from 2003-08 and was the girls' varsity coach from 1998-2002. McGrady was an assitant coach at MCI from 1992-94, and was co-director of a boys and girls pee wee basketball program in 1997.

Scott Giallambardo will coach the MCI boys soccer team. A 2000 graduate of MCI, Giallambardo played varsity soccer at the University of Maine at Farmingtonfrom 2000-02. He coached varsity girls soccer, girls basketball and middle school boys basketball from 2004-06 while a teacher at Katahdin High School. Since returning to MCI in 2006, he has coached JV boys soccer and freshman boys basketball.

Nancy Hughes will coach field hockey. Hughes is a 1987 gaduate of MCI.

Cony High School freshman Taylor Edmondson played the second match of her high school career Tuesday afternoon. It might have felt like it would never end.

Edmondson’s match with Hampden Academy’s Kayla Webb lasted three hours. Webb pulled out the victory, lifting her team to a 3-2 win, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6).

“Everyone was done and that was the deciding match,” Cony coach Carol Patenaude said. “It was crazy.”

Patenaude is excited about the potential of Edmondson, a freshman.

“She is calm and cool,” Patenaede said. She is a really low key girl. It was great watching.”

It still takes a decent poke to hit a baseball out of Hoch Field, but it's a little easier this season than in year's past. The fences down the left and right field lines have been moved in 45 feet.

How often do you retire 20 batters in a row and still come away with a loss? It happened to Erskine sophomore pitcher Sam Morse on Monday. Morse finished with a one-hitter, but Winslow won 2-1 by scoring a pair of unearned runs in the first inning.

Each Sunday, the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel publish a list of student-athletes who went to high school in our coverage area and are now playing in college. I'm glad we get to do it, but sometimes, the line of numbers doesn't tell the whole story. A good example is Justin Denbow, a Maranacook grad now playing baseball at Eastern Nazarene.

Plenty of local high school hockey players came out Friday night for the first of three Maine Moose tryouts.

Mt. Blue High School pitcher Joe Gilbert was drilled twice by line drives back up the middle in Friday's 13-3 loss to Skowhegan. The senior is fine, and pitched one more inning after the second incident.

In the second inning, Gilbert had a Matt Hisler liner go off his foot for a base hit. In the fourth, Hisler sent a hard line drive back up the middle. The ball found Gilbert just below the ribs on his right side, but the pitcher quickly found the ball and threw to first for the final out of the inning before dropping his glove and jogging off the field in pain.

The Maine Moose, who compete in the International Junior Hockey League, open their tryouts today for the 2008-09 season.

Aren't you glad winter's gone? Wednesday morning was great for watching softball, and there was an interesting matchup as Nokomis beat host Skowhegan 5-0. Nokomis pitcher Patrice Cianchette tossed a no-hitter and the Warriors had 12 hits, but this wasn't really a mismatch.

While Colby head football coach Ed Mestieri wouldn't go into specifics, on Wednesday he said he hopes the new artificial turf soon to be installed at Seaverns Field will entice some of the area high schools to play a game on the Waterville campus.

"At some point, maybe the high schools can be involves," Mestieri said.

It's unlikely the Colby football team will play many games under the stadium's new lights. Travel in the New England Small College Athletic Conference is tough enough without starting a game after dark and getting home in the wee hours. But what if Waterville and Winslow wanted to play their annual rivalry game under the lights? Colby would be the perfect spot.

Messalonskee and Lawrence are two of the youngest teams in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A. They met in Monday's season opener, and Messalonskee is the better team at this point. The Eagles won, 17-3, in five innings.

Mt. Blue graduate Megan Richard is now a freshman at Husson College. As a member of the softball team, Richard couldn't get off the bench in the early going.

Now, Richard is making sure she won't come out of the lineup.

Hannah Whitney, a 2002 graduate of Mt. Blue High School, placed 13th at the Freeskiing World Championships last week at Alyeska, Alaska.

Freeskiing is competitive extreme skiing.

Whitney is ranked second on the U.S. women's freeskiing tour, and in February, she picked up her first tour win, in Telluride, Colo. She also placed third at the U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championships at Crested Bute, Colo. this season.

One of the interesting things discovered while going through the information that will be in the Winslow High School football history book due out this fall was how far back the school's nickname goes.

Winslow teams have been known as the Black Raiders since 1933. In 1932, thanks to someone at the Morning Sentinel, Winslow teams were dubbed the Orange Blossoms.

"That was the Sentinel sports department that called us that," longtime Winslow coach Jim Poulin said. "That was never anything official by the school."

Brothers Kolby and Koby Peckham, former Gardiner Area High School lacrosse players, faced off in a college lacrosse game Tuesday.

The new boards and Plexiglas are up at the Kennebec Ice Arena ...

Hall-Dale High School graduate Chelsey Dionne recently finished her sophomore year at Brandeis University.

Winslow High School will field girls and boys tennis teams for the first time this spring, while Mt. Blue High School will have a boys team for the first time since 2004.

The Mt. Blue boys have taken to calling their home courts at Farmington's Hippach Field "The Snow Bowl." The snow is melting, but the Cougars haven't had a chance to practice on the courts yet, and the first match is scheduled for the 17th against Hampden Academy.

"I'd be much happier if the snow was off the tennis courts," coach Stan Kuklinski said.

While it doesn't look so good everywhere, it appears Spring has sprung at Waterville Senior High School.

Belgrade native Teraysa White, who attends Brewster Academy, will play women's hockey at New England College next season. White, a goalie, was named Brewster's MVP her senior season. She played at Brewster from 2006-08.

Patrice Cianchette of Nokomis and Jordan Kennedy of Maine Central Institute are two of the top pitchers in their respective leagues. Nokomis plays in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A, while MCI plays in the KVAC B.

Next season, both Cianchette and Kennedy will be playing at Thomas College in Waterville.

The Mt. Blue boys will play in Eastern Maine Class A after just one year as a club team.

The snow that covers baseball and softball fields in the central Maine area is piled up on tennis courts as well. High school teams are struggling to find practice space, and with the Ascona Tennis and Health Club in Augusta closed, court time is at a premium.