Mia Coots and Megan Watson have been pitching and catching with one another since the seventh grade.

The Nokomis softball duo have one more game together, and it just so happens to be the biggest game of their careers: The Class B final.

Nokomis (19-0) is set to face York (18-1) in the state championship game Tuesday night at 7 at Brewer High School.

“This is a first time in school history, this is a feeling that none of us have felt before,” said Coots, a junior, after Nokomis beat Hermon 6-2 in the Class B North final on Wednesday. “We’re so blessed to be here and so blessed to come away (with a regional title and state final appearance).”

Watson, a senior, and Coots have been dominant for Nokomis this season. Coots has long established herself as one of the top shut-down pitchers in the state. Last week, she was named the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.

“It’s a lot of fun (catching Coots),” Watson said. “Catching and pitching for each other for that long, we work together, we know what each other is thinking.”

Watson is a major reason Nokomis is playing for a state title. Trailing 2-1 to Hermon in the third inning, Watson blasted a two-run home run that traveled 207-feet over the left field wall to give Nokomis a 3-2 lead. The Warriors cruised from there to secure the victory. Watson also threw out a runner trying to steal second base.

Nokomis head coach JD McLellan said the pair thrive off one another.

“It’s a 1-2 punch with them,” McLellan said. “They know each other really well. That’s going to hurt down the road when I don’t have Megan. Mia may have gotten player of the year in the KVAC, but Megan knows how to handle her, knows what’s going on and how we’re moving stuff (defensively).”

McLellan added that he let them call their own pitches all season.

“(Watson) will turn and look at me if there’s (a different call), but this year, I’ve given her almost everything,” McLellan said. “If I see us struggling with a lot of foul balls, I might give her something. In the past, I called my own pitches. But with them, I let them work it out on their own, unless they needed some more information.”

Coots had a strong outing in the regional final as well, striking out 10 Hermon batters. She allowed two runs on four hits — an unusual circumstance for her in an otherwise dominant season — but allowed just one hit the remainder of the game.

“I went into the dugout and said, ‘This is the first time we’ve given up a lead all season, we need to buckle down, play confident and calm, that’s how we always do,'” Coots said. “That’s what we did.”

Coots also praised Watson for the work she’s done behind the plate.

“It means more than anything (to have Watson catch),” Coots said. “A lot of people don’t know this, but she’s been my catcher since I started pitching back in the seventh grade. All of the school ball pitches I have thrown, Megan Watson has caught them. This is a very bittersweet season for us. More that anything, we just want to (win a state title) for each other.”

Watson said she knows what Coots is thinking before she even says anything in the circle. It’s a cohesiveness that the pair hopes brings a Gold Glove to Newport.

“There was one point (during the regional final), she called me out because she wanted a certain pitch for a (batter),” Watson said. “I went out there and was like, ‘I already knew you were going to tell me that, I already planned to do it.'”

“We talk a lot in between innings,” Coots said. “We do our little handshake (in the dugout), we always talk about what we could have done better. That’s what makes us totally, I think, unhittable, is we just know what we’re doing and we have top tier cohesion on the mound.”

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