Sports
Big Blue Softball Team Can't Catch Marblehead
Headers race out to an eight run lead, and the Swampscott comeback falls three runs short Monday afternoon in Marblehead.
Marblehead raced out to an 8-0 lead Monday afternoon and held on for an 8-5 win over their rivals from the Northeastern Conference, the Big Blue.
Maggie Hermann cranked a three-run homer to centerfield off Swampscott starter Angela Vousboukis in the bottom of the third to stake the Headers to a 7-0 lead.
Sarah Hastings was cruising along on the mound through five innings up by seven when Lucia Chalek scored to make it 8-0 after five full, putting Swampscott in a deep hole.
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The Big Blue pushed across three runs in the top of the sixth and two runs in the top of the seventh, but ran out of innings and outs, falling three runs short in their comeback bid.
Heather Tevrow, Bridget Genoversa-Wong and Heather Sullivan scored the first three Swampscott runs; the big hit a two-run double by Sullivan. Freshman Tori Thistle plated Sullivan with an RBI double of her own and the Marblehead fans were getting concerned.
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Stephanie Collins, who had relieved Vousboukis in the third, punched out Michaela LeBlanc and Leah Brooks to end the Marblehead sixth, and the Blue had the top of the order coming up in their half of the seventh.
Merry Ball singled for Swampscott, followed by a Kelly Birchmore double. With runners on second and third, Tevrow stroked another double, sending Ball and Birchmore home.
Hastings retired Genoversa-Wong and Heather Doyle to secure the 8-5 win for Marblehead.
“We need a little more production from the middle of our order, but Hastings is a great pitcher,” Swampscott coach Frank Kowalski said. “She’s been doing it for four years for them.”
Marblehead scored in every inning but the fourth, with eight different players scoring for the Headers.
Kathy DiGiammarino came home on a ground out in the bottom of the first and Marblehead never looked back.
“We did what we had to do in the first few innings,” Marblehead coach Johnny Gold said after the game. “I told the team I wasn’t happy with how we finished today, we got complacent and let Swampscott back in the game.”
The Big Blue travel to Beverly on Wednesday afternoon and host Peabody Friday afternoon at 4 p.m.
Marblehead hosts NEC power Lynn Classical Wednesday at 4 p.m.
