South sweeps 1st two games
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Randolph pitcher Arielle Connolly, pitching for the south, fires to the plate in the first game of Friday's North-South doubleheader in Castleton. ALBERT J. MARRO / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By DENNIS JENSEN Rutland herald - Published: July 3, 2010
CASTLETON – The South rallied from behind twice, eking out a 2-1 win in 10 innings in the first game, then putting on a hitting and baserunning display in the nightcap for a 9-4 victory in the 24th Annual North-South Softball Classic at Castleton State College Friday.
South coach Gary Gervais said he thought his girls really showed their defensive skills in the first game and their prowess at the plate in the second.
"We made a lot of great plays in the first game and the girls hit the ball well in the second," the Hartford coach said.
South 2, North 1 (10 innings)
Outstanding pitching from both teams resulted in a game that saw just four hits for each team. The only extra-base hit came from Tia Billado of Bellows Falls, who ripped a booming double in the third inning that bounced off the fence in center field.
The North took a 1-0 lead in the third. St. Johnsbury's Brittany Regis singled down the first-base line, stole second, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout by Casey Baczewski of BFA-Fairfax.
The South tied it up in the sixth. Middlebury's Lea Gipson reached on an infield single, went to second on a bunt by Hartford's Rachel Lagasse, took third on a groundout by Otter Valley's Michelle Lefebvre and scored on an error.
That 1-1 score stood until the 10th inning, when, with another game looming, the tiebreaker rule was imposed, where each team gets to start the inning with a runner on second base.
Both teams lost out when their designated runners got burned trying to steal third.
Nevertheless, the South plated a run with two gone in the top of the 10th. Mount Anthony's Ashley Glanovsky beat out an infield single, went all the way to third on an infield single by Margy Kerschner of Vergennes and scored on a wild pitch.
Gipson, who went two innings, got the win in relief for the South.
Lamoille's Kylie Pratt took the loss, despite a great performance, also in relief. Pratt went six innings, gave up three hits, struck out 12 and didn't yield a walk. She struck out the side in order in the fifth and eighth innings and retired the side in order in the seventh and ninth innings.
South 9, North 4
Trailing 4-1, the South put up two runs in the third, three runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to take a commanding lead.
Both teams were sharp in the first game, a bit sloppy in the second. The two teams had only two errors combined in the first game, but teamed up for 10 (six for the North, four for the South) in the second game.
And those errors were costly. The North jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on one hit, three errors and two walks, putting pressure on Glanovsky, the South's starting pitcher.
The South plated a run in the bottom of the first. Gipson, the leadoff batter, walked, stole second and came home on a single to left by Lagasse (2 for 2).
The North made it 4-1 in the third. Colchester's Amanda Brigante smacked a triple to right and came home on a single by Jessica Therrien of North Country. Therrien made it home on two passed balls and a groundout.
But that was all the North would get the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the South began to smack the ball around and, with Rutland's Dick Wright coaching at third, played his brand of small-ball to near-perfection.
Three errors and a walk cut the North's lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the third.
In the fourth, two more costly North errors, a single by Mount Abraham's Shanna Gebo and a two-run single to right by Walton gave the South a 6-4 lead.
The South plated three more runs the next inning on an error, a single down the third-base line by Mount Anthony's Taylor Congdon and an RBI single to center off the bat of Brattleboro's Brianna Moore.
Glanovsky got the win, going four innings. Pratt, who came on in relief in the fourth inning, took the loss.
Black River's Zoe Trimboli made the play of the day, robbing BFA-Fairfax's Chelsea King of a base hit with a diving catch.
Gervais said he thought both teams played well. But he said he thought his girls came up big in the first game and really broke out in the second.
"They fought," he said. "They battled. I'm proud of them."
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