RallyNorth.net

Seventh-inning rally fells Hornets

Sunday, June, 13 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

LOWELL — Arlington Catholic head coach Joel Burke was almost hoping against hope.

Trailing 12th seed North Reading, 2-1 late in the twice-delayed Division 2 North semifinals yesterday, Burke thought his eighth-seeded Cougars still had a shot if they could get their first three hitters up one more time.

However, Hornet pitcher Casey Chapman was finding her groove, retiring 11 of 12 batters through to the seventh inning. With an impressive defensive effort backing Chapman up, Arlington Catholic didn’t get leadoff batter Emalee Watkins to the plate until there was just one out left in the game.

But true to Burke’s wishes, the crew came through. Watkins and Caitlyn Leddy stroked back-to-back triples to tie the contest, and third hitter Briana Siciliano scalded a hot grounder under third baseman Alex Moise’s glove for a walkoff single to give AC (now 17-6) an improbable 3-2 victory and a berth in today’s sectional final against Stoneham.

North Reading concludes its season with a 15-8 record.

In the sixth inning, I was hoping to get a base runner or two on to get to the top of the order,” Burke explained. “It didn’t happen, but we just thought if we’d get to the top of the order, we’d have an opportunity. I’m not sure we expected what happened, but we had the right girls up that would give us an opportunity to win.”

Watkins’ blast to left field almost became the third out, but junior Jamie Tringale — who already had made an excellent fifth-inning catch in foul territory, slipped in grass wet from two days of rain and saw the ball deflect off the top of her glove.

“We had the third out, she slipped and fell, and that’s part of the game,” North Reading head coach Rusty Russell said. “Although that out probably should have been made, the fact that (Arlington Catholic) came back and they had a couple of real strong hits to tie it and to win it ... you live by it and you lose by it.”

Despite holding a 1-0 lead on Siciliano’s first-inning RBI double, Burke felt a pair of squanders could come back to haunt him.

“We’ve played them twice before (a preseason Play Day in North Reading and the finals of the Arlington Softball Tourney won by the Hornets), so we knew they could hit and score runs,” Burke said. “We left runners on second and third with one out in the first, and a runner at second with one out in the second, and didn’t score. We thought that would come back to haunt us and it almost did.”

In the third, ninth batter Lynn Giddings led off with a double to left field and scored on Jen Shields’ scorching triple to center. One out later, Moise threaded a single through the shortstop hole to plate Shields with the go-ahead run.

The Hornet defense then went to work as good foot and glove work by third baseman Moise, Tringale’s big grab, and finally freshman second baseman Alicia McCauley’s theft of an apparent sixth-inning single up the middle seemed to lock up the victory.

“We’ve got a very strong defense,” Russell said of North Reading’s flawless play. “We pride ourselves on our defense and we really try to make teams earn everything against us. And (yesterday) they did.”

North Reading also had a couple of threats stifled. Mary Batalis (three hits) was thrown out at home in the second inning trying to score after a good running catch by right fielder Siciliano near the foul line. After taking the lead, the Hornets loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning and put runners on first and third in the fifth on two singles, a fielder’s choice and an error with two outs, failing to score either time.