Softball V

Phillips Exeter Academy

Date/Time Home/Away Type Field Location Score
5/25/2009 6:00 AM Away Game 12-9

Softball beats Exeter in Doubleheader

The weather was glorious and the crowd large and enthusiastic as Exeter hosted its ancient rival in their annual season-ending doubleheader. As the cliché goes, throw out the teams’ records when it comes to a rivalry, and this day proved to be no exception. Exeter entered the twin bill carrying a modest 3-10 record, while Andover drove north at 13-4, but both games couldn’t have been more competitive. Twice, Andover shot out to significant early leads, only to see the Red mount fierce comebacks before the Blue regained its balance and hung on for 12-5 and 12-9 victories. Exeter played with great energy, keynoted by several plays by senior third baseman Mariah Napolitano worthy of a highlight reel, but PA’s bats did some late-inning damage to enable the visitors to escape. The Blue played without injured #1 pitcher and leadoff hitter Caroline Gattuso, instead depending upon two freshmen hurlers, Jackie Higgins and Mackenzie Skwierczynski.

Andover struck immediately. 3B Shannon McSweeney reached on an infield error, and 2B Alayna Garbarino sacrificed her to second. C Sarah Onorato’s double to left plated McSweeney. A walk to 1B Riley Gardner and an RBI single by RF Brianna McCarthy came amidst two more miscues en route to a fast 5-0 lead. But Exeter’s CF Christina Lipson caught Onorato’s deep fly ball in the second inning and kept Andover off the board by throwing a strike to SS Lily White, who relayed the ball to C Antigone Mitchell in time to tag out a PA runner at the plate. At the time, this play swung the momentum toward the Red.

Exeter crept back into the game with three runs in the home second inning, and tied it at 5-5 in the bottom of the third frame. After that, Higgins (4-0) retired twelve of the next thirteen Red batters, while the Blue rocked the hosts with three runs in the top of the fourth and four more in the fifth. The big blow in the fourth was a three-run homer by Gardner, which bounded off the top of the left-centerfield fence. SS Sarah Boylan’s double produced three runs in the fifth inning. Exeter managed just four singles off Higgins, who was victimized by a rash of PA errors in the early innings.

Andover P Mackenzie Skwierczynski made her first varsity start in the second game, and went the three innings the coaching staff hoped she’d complete. Skwierczynski surrendered seven hits, but was hurt by a two-out, bases-loaded infield error in the second inning, which opened the door to a five-run Exeter rally. A leadoff triple in the home third, followed by a walk, stolen base, strikeout and RBI single knotted the game at 7-7, before an inning-ending double play turned by Boylan, Garbarino and Gardner. Despite being handed a 7-0 lead after the Blue’s six-hit, two-walk, seven-run opening inning, Skwierczynski exited with the score tied. Still, she had pitched her three innings, giving Higgins vital time to rest.

Higgins would give up two more runs in the fourth inning, as Exeter took the lead, 9-7, but PA stormed back in the top of the fifth. OF Torie Norris reached base on an infield error and Sonya Schoenberger came into the game as a pinch-runner. Pinch-hitter Sage Hunt bunted Schoenberger to second and McSweeney’s single put runners on first and third. Garbarino walked, but Onorato’s smash to third was turned into a force-out at home by Napolitano and Mitchell, erasing Schoenberger. Boylan’s single drove in McSweeney and Gardner’s double sent home Garbarino and Boylan to make the score, 10-9. While Higgins was again finding strength in the late going, this time setting down eleven of the last twelve batters she faced, PA tagged on two insurance runs in the top of the seventh. Onorato hit a one-out single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on Boylan’s long fly ball to center, which was caught just in front of the fence. Gardner’s two-out, nine pitch at-bat, punctuated by several long foul balls, appeared to end with a swing and miss but the catcher couldn’t handle the pitch cleanly and Gardner made it to first base as Exeter vainly tried to tag out the onrushing Onorato, who had sprinted for home as soon as Gardner had taken off for first base. After a walk, McCarthy’s at-bat culminated in a double to left on the sixth pitch she saw, driving in Gardner to give Andover a three-run lead that it would maintain. Higgins (5-0) was credited with the win.

At day’s end, at a picnic generously provided by the players’ parents, Andover (15-4) bid farewell to four seniors: Captain Sarah Boylan, shortstop; pitcher-outfielder Caroline Gattuso; outfielder-third baseman Brianna McCarthy; and outfielder Torie Norris. Gattuso’s fine post-graduate season saw her compile a 10-4, 1.80 pitching record, striking out 62 while walking just 15, and batting .396 with 10 RBI in her 17 games played. McCarthy’s versatility was highly prized and Norris finished her varsity season by reaching base three times in three plate appearances. The Blue went 59-13 (.819) during Boylan’s four-year varsity career, during which she pitched, played left field, third base and shortstop, while batting in five different spots in the lineup. She totaled 80 hits, almost a third of them for extra bases, good for a .362 batting average, and pitched 51.1 innings, winning all four of her decisions, including a memorable victory in a long relief appearance at Brooks as a Lower. She was a complete ballplayer whose achievements rank among the best in Andover’s softball history. Both Sarah (Middlebury) and Caroline (Bates) are going on to play for NESCAC teams.