Milton’s Morgan Sumner led off both the first and last innings yesterday against Norwood with nearly identical blasts to deep right field. You can bet the second one was infinitely more satisfying.
Sumner’s home run to begin the seventh broke a 4-4 tie and lifted the Wildcats to 5-4 win in a pivotal Bay State Conference battle between squads trying to stay in contention for the Herget title.
Norwood falls to 8-5 overall and 6-4 in the BSC while Milton, the two-time defending division champs, has climbed back into the race after a slow start at 8-3 in the BSC and 10-5 overall. Both squads trail first-place Walpole, which improved to 9-2 in the BSC with yesterday’s 13-9 win over Natick.
“We did well at the plate, we made some contact and made some plays that we need to make,” said Norwood coach Kathy Smelstor. “Milton is playing well right now. We both made some things happen, but unfortunately they made more things happen.”
Sumner began the game in stunning fashion when she crushed a Kristen Dolan offering up into the jet stream winds that pelted the Balch all afternoon, driving it to the fence and rounding easily the bases for a home run. Apparently too easily, however, as Norwood appealed that she missed third base and the umpires concurred, taking the run off the board.
But with the scored knotted in the seventh she ripped a carbon copy to right to start the seventh and this time touched them all for what stood up as the game-winning home run.
“When you are going against a kid like this and you lose that opportunity…you just think Dolan’s not going to make a mistake like that again,” said Milton coach R.J. Maturo. “We saw her once before and she got us (to strike out) like 15 times. We just made the adjustments in practice. You just have to go up there and swing, she going to throw strikes. She’s got four or five different pitches, she’s probably one of the top two pitchers in the state but today we were able to get the bat on the ball a lot.”
With Norwood down to its last out in the bottom of the seventh, Lauren Duggan reached on a error and Diane Barry drew a walk to put a pair on but Milton hurler Casey Flavin got a grounder to short to end it.
Neither ace was particularly sharp in the frigid condition as Dolan surrender a season-high four earned runs while allowing five of Milton’s eight hits to go for extra bases, striking out eight and walking. Flavin fanned five and walked four, with all five hits she gave up coming in the third and fifth innings.
Dolan avoided trouble with back-to-back strikeouts with the bases loaded to end the second, but Milton broke the ice with an unearned run in the third. Morgan Sumner reached on an error then had another eventful encounter at third when she aggressively raced there on sister McKenzie’s sacrifice, then trotted home when the throw got away.
Norwood struck back when Brittany Calarese singled and landed on second because of an error. After a bunt moved her to third, Katie Lang plated her with the first of her two RBI singles on the day.
Milton built a 3-1 lead with runs in the next two innings, getting a two-out RBI double from Brianna Kelly in the fourth and a solo homer to the gap in left center by McKenzie Sumner.
But the Mustangs had an answer in the bottom of the inning as the first five batters reached safely in the three-run fifth that gave them their only lead of the game. Calarese walked to kick it off and Ali Maloof singled on a well-executed slap to shortstop. Lang then drilled a ball off the glove of a diving McKenzie Sumner at third to bring home Calarese, but Milton caught a break when Maloof was hung up between second and third for the first out.
Norwood kept the inning going, however with a walk to Duggan to bring up Barry, who provided the big blow, a two-run triple to right-center that put the Mustangs up 4-3.
It looked like it would stay that way in the sixth when Dolan got the first two batters swinging and thought she had Susan Carreira frozen on a third strike. But she didn’t get the call and Carreira single to keep the inning alive. Brianna Kelly followed with a triple to deep left that tied the game at 4-4.
“Unfortunately both pitchers had to put it right down the middle because they weren’t getting anything,” said Smelstor.
While Norwood is now two games in the loss column behind Walpole, because the first meeting between the rivals was postponed due to rain the Mustangs are in the unique position of still have a pair of games left against the Herget leaders, at Bird Middle School on Thursday and at home under the lights in the regular season finale May 23. First, Norwood hosts Framingham tomorrow.
“I don’t want to say that I’m not geared for a race toward first place but I want them playing well enough so that when we do qualify (for the tournament) that momentum carries into that first game,” said Smelstor. “But I’ve got Walpole twice and if we can beat them twice we’re contenders, we just have to play good ball like we did today and I think well be okay.”
Meanwhile, with Milton needing some help for third straight division crown, the Wildcats are big Mustangs fans from here on out.
“We will be sending them bouquets of flowers, candy, whatever they want,” said Maturo.
