Softball GV

Worcester Academy

Date/Time Home/Away Type Field Location Score
5/16/2009 5:00 AM Home Tournament Big East 2-1

Big East Prep Invitation Softball Tournament

The high hopes that the Blue had entering this year’s BET were dashed in a frustrating extra-inning elimination game loss to defending champion Lawrence Academy, but the four teams that survived a first day of intense softball competition had to face an even greater loss when Sunday rain washed out the tournament climax. That the skies cleared belatedly, leaving a perfect late afternoon in their wake, only added to the participants’ disappointment. Brooks, Lawrence, Milton and Tabor had earned Final Four spots at the expense of Andover, BB&N, Exeter and Worcester but, for the fifth time in nine years, the BET schedule failed to reach a conclusion.

Just as it had a year ago, the Lawrence Academy Spartans began the tourney on the losing end – this time, a 4-1 loss to Brooks – and then started on a run of improbable wins. In the second round, then took an exciting, ten-inning, 5-4 victory vs. Exeter, and went on to win a second consecutive extra-inning thriller at Andover’s expense, 3-2, in eight innings. Tabor defeated BB&N, 6-0, Milton dropped Exeter, 2-0, and Andover squeaked past Worcester, 2-1, in other first-round action. In the losers’ bracket, Worcester outmuscled BB&N, 12-7, in addition to LA’s win eliminating Exeter. In second-round winners’ games, Brooks beat Milton, 4-2, and Andover fell before Tabor, 8-1. Milton sent Worcester home, 12-5, in a second-round losers’ bracket tilt, while Andover came up a run short against LA, ending its tourney run.

Andover faced stiff competition from a Worcester team it had swept in a doubleheader two weeks earlier. Although the Hilltoppers could only muster three hits off P Caroline Gattuso, two were doubles, and PA was experiencing offensive troubles of its own – a trend that would continue all day and lead directly to the Blue’s demise. PA managed a run without a hit in the bottom of the fourth inning when SS Sarah Boylan reached on a one-out error, advanced to second on a passed ball and scampered home on a second infield miscue. But WA coaxed a leadoff walk in the top of the sixth, and a PA error put two runners on base. Andover threw out the lead runner on an attempted sacrifice bunt, but a two-out double by Lindsay John tied the game. The Blue went in order in the home sixth and Gattuso retired WA in the same fashion in the top of the seventh. 2B Alayna Garbarino led off the bottom half with a single to left field, and RF Caroline Kaufman’s bunt was so good that she reached base, putting two runners on base with none out. A passed ball moved them into scoring position. LF Briana McCarthy tried a safety squeeze bunt but while it failed to bring home the run, allowed her to make it to first, loading the bases. With the Worcester infield playing in for a play at the plate, CF Ramya Prathuri drove a line single just inside the third-base line for the game-winning RBI, 2-1.

Tabor Academy came out flying in Andover’s next game, taking a first-inning lead and never looking back en route to an 8-1 thrashing of the Blue. Andover surrendered a single run in the first, four in the second, and one each in the third, fifth and sixth innings. Gattuso was driven from the circle with two out in the third inning, having been charged with six runs (five earned). She was replaced by Jackie Higgins, who allowed four hits and two runs (one earned) in three-and-a-third innings of work. Andover was held to three singles by Seawolves P Erin White. The Blue’s only run came when Garbarino once again led off with a base hit. A one-out error on a bunt by Higgins and a single by OF Sonya Schoenberger produced PA’s only run of the game.

Andover had a long break while awaiting its elimination-game opponent, watching as Lawrence and Exeter battled through ten innings. Gattuso once again was in the pitcher’s circle but, as was the case all day, she lacked run support. Andover would strand eleven baserunners in a 3-2, eight-inning loss. LA took a 1-0 lead in the third on back-to-back, two-out doubles by C Rebecca Fleming and SS Brenna Morrissey. PA responded immediately. Prathuri singled, was sacrificed ahead by Gattuso and went to third on 3B Shannon McSweeney’s infield out. C Sarah Onorato’s single drove in Prathuri to tie the game, but Onorato’s steal of second was for naught. Andover left the bases loaded in the fourth, a runner on third in the fifth, and runners at second and third in the seventh. Using the international tiebreaker, LA began the eighth with a runner on second base. Andover walked the dangerous Morrissey to set up a play at three bases, but a fielder’s choice loaded the bases with none out. The next groundball nailed the runner at home, but a low throw on the one after that couldn’t be handled and LA took a 2-1 lead. A decisive third run came across on yet another infield groundball that was slowly fielded, before an unassisted double play by McSweeney ended the inning.

Andover’s home eighth epitomized its day. Down two runs, the orthodox tactic of bunting the run to third base would have cost a precious out, so PA hit away. 1B Riley Gardner slammed the sixth pitch of her at-bat for a double to left, scoring Boylan, and Mackenzie Skwierczynski entered the game to run for Gardner. Garbarino singled to put runners on first and third, and DP Sage Hunt’s bunt moved Garbarino up to second, putting the potential winning run into scoring position, although Skwierczynski was unable to score on the play. But a foul pop gained the Spartans a key second out. Prathuri tried twice to squeeze in the tying run, but her bunts rolled foul. She was thrown out on a close play at first to end the game.

Unfortunately, Andover’s three biggest bats went cold at an inopportune moment, going 4-for-27 (.148) with only one extra-base hit good for just one RBI, in contrast to their collective 60-for-129 (.465) with sixteen XBH and 44 RBI in the previous thirteen games. The team’s record now stands at 13-3, with three road games left to play, one at Brooks on Wednesday, and the season-ending doubleheader at Exeter on Saturday.