By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
The top two teams in Division III South squared off in the final game of the varsity softball season Saturday. The Whalers, who lost to Cohasset 6-4 in the first game of the season, picked up the victory in the second meeting 3-2 to close out the schedule.
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Grace-Anne Tornovish slides into second base on a steal attempt during Saturday’s win over Cohasset. |
Also this week, Nantucket split a midweek double-header against Bishop Connolly, losing game one 4-3 before winning game two 8-6.
The Whalers wrapped up the season at 16-4 and earned the second seed in the postseason tournament. In the first round, Nantucket will host 15th-seeded Millis (4-16) out of the mixed-division Tri-Valley League Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
While the victory over top-seeded Cohasset (17-3) Saturday did nothing to affect the standings, it gives the Whalers an indication of how far they have come since the first game of the season and where they might be headed in the postseason.
“It tells you when you are going into the tournament that we are as good as anybody in there. When we play our A game, we are as good as anybody coming down the pipe. We now know we have a couple people that can throw the ball, we have good solid defense and we have people that can hit the ball,” head coach Chris Maury said.
All eight seniors got the start and played the entire game Saturday. Jessica Guevara, Parinda Darden, Sally Benson, Morgan and Thayer Dugan, Grace-Anne Tornovish, Angela Paterson and Taylor Murphy, alongside junior shortstop Lindsay Fry, got the job done.
“It was a nice win. It was particularly nice because we basically let all the seniors play today and they did a good job. They really came through,” Maury said. “As long as we were hanging in there, we were going to hang in there with them.”
Guevara, who has been pitching well against high-powered offenses down the stretch, got the start Saturday and kept the Skippers completely off-balance. Cohasset had only three hits in the game and struck out 13 times, including six of the last seven at-bats.
“She moves the ball around, whether it’s inside, outside, up and down, and then she throws the change-up at them,” Maury said.
The Skippers scored single runs in the first and third innings, while the Whalers added single runs in the first, third and the game-winner in the fourth.
Cohasset got one run in the top of the first with some head’s-up baserunning. Kristin Monaco led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a dropped third strike and scored on an error in the outfield. Guevara got out of the inning with a line drive to Thayer Dugan at third and a caught stealing at third by Darden to Dugan.
The Whalers responded with a little small-ball of their own for a run in the bottom of the inning. Guevara led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a bunt from Paterson and scored on a passed ball.
“We won the game because we ran the bases well,” Maury said.
In the third inning the two squads traded runs again. Cohasset reached on an error and scored from second on a ground ball. Benson led off with an infield single and scored on a ground-out by Fry.
The fourth was the deciding inning. Thayer Dugan reached on an infield hit and eventually scored from second on a single by Darden.
Guevara allowed only one baserunner through the final four innings as the Whalers held on for the win.
Against Bishop Connolly Wednesday, the Whalers had a tough time getting their timing back after the Chatham game the day before, but had the lead early in both games.
In game one Nantucket plated two runs in the second inning as Guevara drove in Murphy and Tornovish with a double to put the Whalers on the board.
In the top of the fifth and final inning, the Cougars got to Guevara with three singles to load the bases before the Whalers committed two errors to help plate four runs. Tornovish got the squad out of the inning with a put-out at first base from right field.
Nantucket rallied in the bottom of the fifth. Fry reached on a one-out triple and scored on a bunt from Morgan Dugan, but it would be the only run of the inning.
“If we don’t make the mistakes we made in the top of the fifth inning, we don’t even have to go to the plate. We learned from our mistakes. We lost our focus there a little bit and we let them back in the ball game,” Maury said.
In game two, the Whalers finally found their timing and jumped all over the Bishop Connolly pitcher for five runs in the first inning, including a three-run triple from Kelly Reid.
“We picked up the energy level a bit, moved up in the box and attacked the ball a little better,” Maury said.
Bishop Connolly responded with three runs in the top of the second, but the Whalers kept the heat on with two more runs in the bottom of the inning. Nantucket had an 8-3 lead through three, but in the fourth the Cougars kept pressing and plated three runs to cut the deficit to 8-6.
Maury changed speeds on Bishop Connolly, following up the hard-throwing Reid with Guevara for the fifth. The senior pitcher struck out the side to earn the save and the victory.
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