By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
Relying on solid defense and standout pitching, the varsity softball team won five games this week, beating Martha’s Vineyard to earn a postseason berth and tallying three straight shutouts at home.
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Ashley Clinger, attempting to stretch a triple into a home run, does not get in under the tag of Chatham catcher Rachel Johnson Tuesday, but the Whalers won easily over the visiting Blue Devils 10-0 for their fifth straight victory. |
The Whalers beat the rival Vineyarders 8-3 Thursday, Diman 8-4 Friday, Pembroke 5-0 and 7-0 in a doubleheader Saturday before shutting down Chatham 10-0 Tuesday.
Nantucket (14-3) was scheduled to host a doubleheader against Bishop Connolly yesterday, too late for this edition of Sports. The Whalers are scheduled to face Cohasset Saturday in a rematch of a 6-4 loss earlier this season. The varsity squad has come a long way since that game and is out to prove it in the final regular-season contest.
Pitching and defense have been the obvious strengths of this year’s team and are giving them a key advantage in close games and making the difference in the rest.
“This is actually, position for position, probably one of the best teams I have had. We have good solid pitching, we have depth. We can move people around and put people in different positions and it doesn’t hurt us. We can take people off the bench and put them in games and it doesn’t hurt us,” head coach Chris Maury said.
Jessica Guevara got her third start of the week Tuesday against Chatham and earned her second straight three-hit shutout, tallying 13 strikeouts against the baffled Blue Devils hitters. The senior also shut down Martha’s Vineyard for three runs on five hits and blanked Pembroke on three hits.
“She is just a whole different look than Kelly (Reid). We feel going down the stretch if we can get the two of them throwing well it is just going to give us options going into the playoffs. Even with throwing both of them in a single game, don’t give them three looks at a single pitcher, could be a big advantage,” Maury said.
The Whalers had a slow start against the soft-throwing Chatham pitcher Tuesday. Angela Paterson and Lindsay Fry reached and scored on a two-out single by Thayer Dugan in the first for the 2-0 lead. It wasn’t until the fourth that Nantucket was able to get some runners on base and break things open.
“We got a little bit more patient at the plate from a standpoint of waiting her out and making her throw some pitches. We were swinging at bad pitches.
That ball was coming in so slow, you are basically pulling yourself right out of your sneakers just to hit the thing. It is just not easy,” Maury said.
With two outs, the Whalers dropped down two bunts and waited out a few walks to get runners on. Once on base the heads-up base-running took over as Nantucket scrambled for six runs on three errors.
The Whalers shut out Pembroke in two games of a home doubleheader Saturday. Reid got the start in game one, allowing only four hits and no walks as Nantucket put up five runs on eight hits. With a 3-0 advantage, Fry put things away with an RBI triple in the third.
In game two, Guevara kept the Titans off balance with a change-up that was falling in for strikes.
“When you can throw a change-up for a strike it puts another thought in their head and it really slows the bat speed down and she has done a great job with it,” Maury said.
Pembroke scattered only three hits in the five-inning game. Guevara got the final seven batters to softly ground or pop out to the right side of the infield.
The Whalers’ offense meanwhile put up three in the first, one in the third and three more in the fourth to open up the game. Guevara helped her own cause with a 2-for-3 day at the plate with two runs scored. Paterson was 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Thayer Dugan was 2-for-3 with two RBI. Taylor Murphy and Sally Benson also contributed two hits each.
The Whalers went up against Diman at home Saturday in a rematch of postseason games in the last two years as well as a 3-2 victory earlier this season. The two squads have proven to be close competitors in recent games.
The Bengals took a 2-0 lead with runs in the first and third innings before the Whalers got going. Nantucket scored twice to tie the game in the third on two Diman errors, added two more in the fourth on a triple by Thayer Dugan, who scored on a throwing error on the play, and then tacked on three more in the fifth, highlighted by a two-run single from Fry.
The Whalers’ defense held off any Diman threat with good coverage on bunt plays and head’s-up plays across the field.
“We are starting to play better and better all the time and I can’t say enough good things about our outfield. They are making good plays. There is nothing like having a combination of pitching and good defense together,” Maury said.
Against the Vineyard Thursday, the Whalers were looking to avenge a 16-7 loss at home early in the season. They were coming off a 9-1 loss to Blue Hills two days earlier and still looking for a playoff berth.
“We played probably our poorest game of the season the game before against Blue Hills and with one practice, we turned it around and played our best game of the season against a big rival. The focus and the energy level was right on and it was terrific,” Maury said.
Guevara held the Vineyard to three runs on five hits, while striking out eight in seven innings. Nantucket scored two in the first, four in the second and broke it open with two more in the sixth.
“There were no big hits to drive in a bunch of runs. Our strong suit this year has been work on base-running. We have been taking advantage of every single mistake that these other teams make,” Maury said.
Fry finished the day 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. Guevara, Paterson and Morgan Dugan had two hits each.
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