The Dedham High softball team decided in the fifth inning yesterday that it was a little too early to start playing for pride.
Needing to win their final four game to qualify for the tournament and trailing 1-0 to Newton North through four-and-half innings, the Marauder bats awoke with fury, scoring 11 unanswered runs over the next two frames in an 11-1 win that kept their slim postseason hopes alive at 6-9.
“We needed to respond and it was good to see,” said Dedham coach Erika Eisenhut. “They know that if we don’t win out we’re done next week and they wanted to make it happen.”
The Marauders still need to win their next three games, with a night game in Milton up tomorrow.
Lauren Daley sparked the uprising, plating Erin Cuddy and Julia Kilcoyne with a three-run blast to left field in the fifth, part of a 5-RBI day for the senior captain. Jill Moses also had a two-run triple and came home on a Tameika Allen sacrifice fly as Dedham scored six times in the inning for a 6-1 lead.
The hits kept coming in the sixth as Sarah Mosca, Daley and Michelle Totino all had run-scoring singles to boost the lead to 11-1. Allen was 3-for-3 on the day while Daley, Totino, Moses and Cuddy all had two hits.
After giving up a leadoff homer in the second, Kelly Celata settled down to go the distance, allowing just five hits without a walk while fanning three.
The Mustangs moved within a win of the tournament and stayed in the BSC Herget race with yesterday’s win over the Flyers, improving to 9-5 overall and 7-4 in the league headed into tomorrow’s showdown with division leader and rival Walpole.
“We’re closer,” said Norwood coach Kathy Smelstor of a postseason berth. “The first goal is to qualify, two is to be a league contender and three is to try and get a good seed.”
Norwood took control with a three-run second. The Mustangs left the bases loaded in the first and appeared in danger of wasting an Alex Dukas double but Brittany Calarese, Ali Maloof and Katie Lang delivered three straight hits.
Framingham got two back in fifth but that was all the Flyers could manage against Paige Hackett, who gave up five hits and struck out one to earn the win.
Lauren Duggan’s RBI single gave Norwood some insurance in the sixth. The Mustangs had 12 hits total on the day, two each from Calarese, Maloof, Lang and Dukas.
The Wolverines dropped their second straight since wrapping up a tournament bid as the Mustangs used a five-run third to bump Westwood to 10-7 overall and 8-7 in the Tri-Valley.
Westwood jumped out a 2-0 lead in the first. Kelly McCarthy led off with a hit and Christine McGrail reached on an error. Lauren Hillberg’s ground out plated one run while Chelsey Ristanio drove in the other with a single. Ristaino collected her second three-hit game in as many days.
“We just had a mental let down in third,” said Westwood coach Brendan Dillon. “It was just one of those things, one bad inning. Hopefully, we got it out of our system and we can move on.”
Just three of the runs were earned for hurler Julie D’Aleo, who gave up 10 hits and two walks while striking out four.
The Bulldogs led 2-0 heading into the seventh but the Governors erupt for six runs in the final frame to drop Nobles to 7-5 overall and 4-3 in the ISL.
After falling down 6-2 in the seventh, Sarah Duncan cut the lead with an RBI single and Nobles got the tying run to the plate but the rally stopped there. Duncan and Nora Kelly each were 3-for-3 on the day for the Bulldogs.
