Earlier in the week Norwood High softball coach Kathy Smelstor prioritized her team’s goals for the rest of the regular season as qualifying for the tournament first and getting into contention for the Bay State Conference Herget Division title second.
Kristen Dolan tossed a four-hit shutout against division-leading Walpole in a 6-0 win that not only officially put Norwood in the postseason at 10-5 but moved the Mustangs a game back in the loss column at 8-4 from the rival Rebels and Milton (both 10-3) in the chase for the Herget crown.
“Everybody came up big this game,” said Smelstor. “They were determined and we really wanted it and it showed today.”
The key frame was the third when the meat of the Mustangs order strung together three big blows in a four-run inning that broke a scoreless tie. A Brianna Gearty single and an Ali Maloof walk set the table for Katie Lang, who blasted an RBI double to deep center for the game’s first run.
Lauren Duggan followed with another smash, this one a two-run triple to right-center. Diane Barry picked her up singling just past Michaela Cosby’s reach at short for a 4-0 edge, knocking Walpole starter Haley Smith from the game.
“When we give (Dolan) some runs, we are tough to beat,” said Smelstor. “Everybody was on their toes and I think Walpole was a little frustrated and we came up with some big plays. I think we played well. We hit well and we hit back-to-back.”
The way Dolan looked in the early going, four runs might as well have been 40. The senior right-hander set down the first nine Rebels in a row, seven on strikes, including whiffing the side on nine pitches in the third.
Shawna Richardson solved her for the first Rebel hit to leadoff the fourth, a solid single to center, but was marooned on second when Dolan pulled the string on a mesmerizing changeup for a called third strike to end the inning.
Walpole collected hits in each of the next three innings, a two-out double by Stephanie Frye in the fifth, a infield single by Meg Johnson off Dolan’s glove in the sixth and a leadoff single by Lauren Johnson in the seventh, but each time Dolan left them stranded.
Coming off her roughest outing of the year Monday against Milton, it was a clutch performance for the AIC-bound hurler, who struck out 11 and did not walk a batter in running her mark to 6-4.
“The girls we saying that when they got up to bat that the ball was moving up and down. It looked like she had a curveball today and some of them could catch up with it,” said Walpole coach Jim Duffy of Dolan. “As far as I’m concerned she’s the MVP of the league. That’s our first look at her and she was pretty good. She changed it up on us and she throws strikes all day long. They found some holes on us early and it’s very difficult to comeback on a pitcher like that. Hats off to that team, they played a whale of game today.”
Reliever Kim Cunniff got the Rebels out of the third and pitched a scoreless fourth and fifth before Norwood added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth.
Ali Maloof had an RBI single and Duggan made a bid to knock in two more with another deep drive to right, but a well-executed relay from Lauren Johnson to Richardson at the plate cut the second runner down and held the damage at 6-0.
With the Rebels seeking their first Herget crown since 2005, Walpole now has little margin for error heading into a final week of the season that wraps ups with a rematch with Mustangs a week from tonight under the lights at the Balch.
“We’ve got Framingham and can’t take them lightly and Wellesley is quality team, a tournament team,” said Duffy. “What we just explained to the kids is that we have to forget about today and play ball against Framingham and Wellesley and they be ready to play a better ballgame against Norwood next Friday night.”
Norwood faces a tough five-game-in-five-days week to close the regular season and, unlike the Rebels, with three-loss Milton in the mix does not control its own destiny for a Herget title. But the Mustangs are hoping to keep the pressure on the front-runners as long as they can.
“We’re back in the race, we have a big week coming up and (Walpole) again on Friday. They are going to want revenge on our home turf but we want to keep our momentum going,” said Smelstor. “If you keep winning that gets us closer and closer and hopefully it will come down to the wire on Friday.”
