Despite playing in a different division and against a different opponent, the result was still the same for the Concord-Carlisle High School softball team.
The Patriots, playing their first season in Division I, captured the D-I North championship with a 5-0 win over two-time defending state champion Lexington High School at Martin Field on Sunday. Concord-Carlisle had won six D-II North titles since 1999 before moving up.
Concord-Carlisle (23-1) will return to Lowell on Tuesday to face King Philip Regional of Wrentham in the state semifinals. The game will start at 7 p.m.
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Lexington's season finishes with a 15-8 record. Sunday's loss was the first for the Minutemen in the postseason in three years.
Again it was junior pitcher Gayle Miner who paced the C-C attack. The Patriots' ace picked up her third shutout of the postseason. She struck out four, gave up two hits and walked one batter.
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At the plate, Miner gave the Patriots all the offense they would need with a three-run double in the third inning.
The Patriots scored their other two runs when Clare Kavanagh came around on a Lexington error in the fourth inning and Jess Stout doubled in Georgia Guttadauro in the fifth.
Lexington's two hits were a bunt single by Katy DelGreco in the second and a single by Alyssa Zahka in the sixth.
Danielle DelGreco and Becky Hoffman split pitching duties for the Minutemen.
