Third base is usually the least occupied bag on the diamond. However, the hitters of Coastal Athletics took over the hot corner last Wednesday, belting out six triples to top Fortin Transport, 10-3, in the Westbrook Women’s Slow-Pitch Softball League championship game at Fraser Field.

“It’s a hitter’s game and we pounded the ball,” said Sebago’s Julie Langadas, who catches for Coastal. “It was great.”

Langadas and her teammates finished the regular season 14-1, but came in needing to win two games in the double-elimination tournament in order to take the league title, and they did just that.

Down 3-0 early in the first game, Gorham’s Cindy Crowe walked and scored in the third inning for Coastal, and then Linda Broderick of South Portland doubled to knock in two more runs.

Fortin went up by two in the top of the fifth, with Buxton’s Chori Braley knocking in the second of those runs with a single. CA fought back with four singles in the bottom of the frame, the last – a smash by Broderick that knocked the centerfielder’s glove right off – knotting the score again.

In the sixth, Gorham’s De Emery singled for Coastal and came in with the lead run on Jessie Strout’s triple. Jodi Antonowicz, also of Gorham, set Fortin down in order in the last two innings to seal the victory.

“We always know it’s going to be a good game when we play them,” said Westbrook’s Bron Nelson, a Fortin outfielder.

“(Fortin has) real power and a good sense of the game,” CA coach Art Piteau of Windham, who has coached women’s softball for 27 years. “They’re a very good team.”

Coastal didn’t want to come from behind twice in one day. Instead, they broke loose in the bottom of the second, using the triple as their main weapon.

The barrage began with a shot off Emery’s bat that bounced to the fence, the first of four three-baggers in the inning. She scored from third when Langadas tripled. Next up was Westbrook’s Melissa D’Alfonso, and she continued the attack with another RBI-triple.

A short while later, Crowe walloped yet another triple, knocking in a run. Darcy Zuniga sent her home when she reached on an error and then Zuniga scored on Karen Bailey’s single.

Five runs would be enough for D’Alfonso, who pitched the complete game victory, but Windham’s Micki Stetson knocked in a pair of runs with a triple of her own in the fourth, and then scored herself on Bailey’s sacrifice fly.

In the fifth, Kimmie Tudor delivered one more triple and then came home when Emery reached on an error.

Fortin got on the board in the sixth when Braley knocked in a pair, and they added another in the seventh, but it was too little, too late.

“They were hot and we weren’t,” said Scarborough’s Donna Andersen, one of Fortin’s top sluggers. “If we don’t hit, we don’t win. It’s pretty simple.”

CA tallied 14 hits in the second game, seven of them for extra bases.

“We won two games and we did it in fine fashion,” said Broderick. “They key was not who we were playing, but how we were playing.”

“Our defense was solid, and we didn’t give up anything that they didn’t earn, and that’s big,” D’Alfonso said. “If you give up extra outs it makes a big difference, and we didn’t do that tonight.”