(Amesbury MA) For 4 ½ innings one run looked big, and Case had it.
The next two innings?
“Defensive meltdown,” are the two words that come to mind.
Undefeated Amesbury turned errors into eleven runs during those two innings and won, 11-1, to gain a spot in the Division Three finals on Wednesday.
“It was certainly not our best day,” said Case coach Shannon Silva afterwards.
“We didn’t hit (Case had three) and I knew that one run wouldn’t be enough to win this game,” she added.
But that run looked awfully big for a while.
A Megan Smith single, a wild pitch, a sacrifice bunt, and another wild pitch put the Cardinals on the board in the third inning.
The Indians had runners on in the second, third, and fourth innings but Case starter Hailey Berube (six strikeouts) held them off.
“That run of theirs looked big for a long time,” said AHS coach Jacqui Waters.
The Cardinals had their first error in the fourth inning, but Hailey Berube got a two-on strikeout to keep it from being costly.
In the fifth inning, Amesbury put two hits together (Lauren Celia double & Ella Delisle single) to tie the score.
This game was decided just five batters later.
Case, uncharacteristically, committed an error on each of the next five batters. There were bad throws and grounders unstopped. Six runs crossed for Amesbury.
“When I watched them play and read everything about them, this was one thing that didn’t happen to them,” said Coach Waters.
More misplays (two) for the Cardinals in the sixth inning and Amesbury added five more runs. In that productive sixth inning, Izzy Lavasseur, Julia Campbell, and Cali Catarius had RBIs for the Indians.
Sophomore catcher Ella Delisle had a big game for Amesbury. She had three hits, an RBI, and threw a runner out at second base.
“We were down but came back,” said Ella. “It shows how determined we are as a team. The comeback felt good.”
Liv DeLong started for Amesbury and went three innings. Alana Delisle went the next three innings and Liv covered the seventh inning.
“I brought in Alana after Liv had pitched through their lineup,” said Coach Waters, “and that worked in our favor. Defensively, we seem to better when Liv is at first base.”
Liv is a lefty and Alana is a righty. “When a team sees a lefty and then a righty it kind of messes with them a little bit,” said Liv.
The game ended on what looked like a hit to right, but RF Lauren Celia charged the line drive and threw the runner out at first base.
“We practice that play a lot,” said Lauren.
“Amesbury played a great game,” said Coach Silva. “They played a clean game and they hit the ball consistently. If you put the ball in play, things can happen. We had eight errors.”
Case (10-4) is from the South Coast League.
The team from Swansea was the #8 seed in the South.
Case won the Division 3 South in 2019.
Amesbury gets Turners Falls next in the D3 state finals. The game is scheduled for Wednesday with a coin toss deciding whether it will be at Turners Falls or at Amesbury.
Anyone remembering this game will probably start with the heat…..95 degrees and hazy. I found, however, that once the game started, I wasn’t aware of either of those.
Nice catch by Case rightfielder Abby Sirois in fifth inning. Abby caught the ball and then went flying over teammate 2B Alexandria Yost…..but still held on.
Izzy Levasseur had two hits and scored two runs for Amesbury.
Amesbury ended up with eight hits. Case had three hits.
(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)
McClelland Miscellanea 