Ashley Casellini | McClelland Miscellanea

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May 24, 2011 · 9:15 pm

Newburyport Downs Ipswich 7-0 to Win 14th

Taylor Summit, Beth Castantini, and Kendra Dow are all smiles after Win #14.

(Newburyport) The Newburyport Clippers (14-3) are on a big-time roll.

On the last regular-season home game, the Clippers defeated Ipswich, 7-0, on surprisingly warm (for spring 2011) Tuesday afternoon at Cashman Park.

The red-hot Clippers have won eleven of their last twelve games and now get to play Amesbury (Wednesday at Amesbury) and sort out which of them is the best team in Division 2 in the Cape Ann League. Amesbury won the first meeting, 10-9, at Cashman Park.

The loss eliminated Ipswich (7-11) from any chance of making the post-season. In this one the Tigers did themselves in early in the field and didn’t have the hitting against Beth Castantini (four hitter with eight K’s) to recover as the innings went by.

Liz Glavin – Tiger slugger was intentionally walked twice.

A key piece of strategy kept Tiger Liz Glavin (CAL’s most dangerous hitter?) from hurting the Clippers. In the first and third innings Newburyport intentionally walked Liz even though there already were runners on. The batters after Liz (Sam Wideberg and Rachel Glaubitz) couldn’t deliver.

In the fifth, the Tigers had runners on first and second when it was Liz’s turn. Newburyport, with a 5-0 lead, opted not to walk her. This strategy also worked as Liz hit a hard grounder to third that Maddy Stanton fielded and stepped on third to retire the side.

Liz will be continuing her softball at Wentworth Institute in 2012.

The opportunistic Clippers took full advantage of some low-light film defense by the Tigers in the first. Newburyport gathered four runs on just two hits (Maddy Stanton & Ashley Casellini). Ipswich committed three errors and had two wild pitches. It wasn’t pretty stuff if you watching from the Ipswich sidelines.

Pitcher Katie Gaubitz (allowed five hits in five innings) fielded a one-hopper hit by second batter Lea Tomasz and went for the force-out at second. Good idea except neither second baseman Becca Dunlop nor shortstop Carolyn Lynch covered second. Katie’s throw went into centerfield.

Before the inning ended, catcher Liz Glavin had a bad throw to second and Carolyn Lynch had bobbled a grounder.

Ashley Casellini drove in the only earned run of the first with a single to center.

Newburyport added a single run in the second as Cassie Davis tripled (to center) to drive in Maddy Stanton.

In the fifth, Cassie Davis put herself into a rundown past first and Lea Tomasz (who had singled) slipped home from third for Newburyport’s sixth run.

Lea Tomasz’s single in the sixth inning drove in Rachel Webster with the Clippers’ seventh, and final, run.

Lea Tomasz starts the play in which she will throw Rachel Glaubitz out at 3B in the sixth inning.

Ipswich killed a developing big inning in the 6th when Clipper left fielder Lea Tomasz threw out Rachel Glaubitz at third on a Carolyn Lynch single.

There were balloons attached to the Newburyport bench for their six seniors: Cassie Davis, Taylor Summit, Shannon Brunault, Rachel Webster, Eleni Kacher, and Corrie Benton.

Jill Lombard recorded the Tigers first hit (infield grounder) with two out in the 5th.

Lea Tomasz had two hits, scored two runs, and had an RBI to pace Newburyport’s hitters.

(I collect my own stats and take my own pictures. Any mistakes are unintentional.)

senior Corrie Benton

senior Eleni Kacher

senior Rachel Webster

senior Taylor Summit

senior Cassie Davis

senior Shannon Brunault

Poor Defense Dooms Haverhill 10-2 Against Newburyport

Cassie Davis reaches third as NHS Coach Peter Murray watches.

Lea Tomasz scores in the first on Rachel Webster’s rbi single.

(Newburyport) Newburyport defeated Haverhill, 10-2, on Thursday afternoon at Perkins Field in a non-league softball game.

The Clippers (11-3) have won eight of their last nine games and the contrast between them and visiting Haverhill (1-15) took a while to become evident.

I went anticipating a blowout and even tried, before the game, to get up to speed on softball’s mercy rule. But this wasn’t one of those kinds of games, in fact the Hillies led 2-1 into the bottom of the 4th.

Newburyport got it’s run in the first on a double to right center by Lea Tomasz and 2-out bloop single to center by Rachel Webster.

Haverhill took the lead in a wild third inning after going runner-less in the first two innings. They loaded the bases with one out on a Ellie MacArthur single to right, a hit batsman (Liz Murphy) and late throw to 3b by pitcher Molly Rowe on Kayla Pellot’s bunt. Second baseman Taylor Summit took in Kallie Suplinskas’s liner and nearly picked Ellie MacArthur off of third for what would have been the last out. Then Taylor dropped Casey Birch’s infield popup to let in the Hillies first run and Theresa Ross singled up the middle to bring home Liz Murphy. However, Kayla Pellot also tried to score and was thrown out at the plate for the final out of the inning.

Haverhill’s Kallie Suplinskas was victimized by poor defense.

In the bottom of the fourth it was Haverhill’s chance to get “generous.” It was a harmless start with two unassisted putouts by first baseman Haley DeRoche. However, a couple of walks and Liz Murphy’s drop of a third-out infield popup and Newburyport’s Shannon Brunault crossed home with a run. Ashley Casellini’s infield single drove Taylor Summit home with another run.

Newburyport led 3-2 going into the bottom of the 5th. This was when Haverhill showed why it has lost twelve straight. Lack of defense. Three of the first four Clippers reached on errors. Two routine fly balls to center were dropped and later an infield popup was dropped at first. These miscues gave the Clippers two undeserved runs. Shannon Brunault singled another run in and later a fielder’s choice by Taylor Summit brought home a fourth run. All four runs were seriously unearned and put the Hillies down, 7-3.

The Clippers added three more in the sixth.

Except for the glitch on the infield popup in the third inning, the Newburyport defense was excellent especially against bunts. The Hillies bunted often but had little to show for it because of solid infield defense by the Clippers. Bobbles are infrequent and throws are usually strong and accurate.

Haverhill bunted often but the Newburyport infield defense reacted well.

Bad weather. You just can’t get enough of it this season. Cloudy and drizzly with a chance of serious rain at any moment. Ink on paper never holds up well under those conditions. My camera manual takes a dim view of dampness. Point? I lead the way to the exits when rain seems likely!

A game to look forward to is next Wednesday (May 25th) at Amesbury with Newburyport. Amesbury is cruising along undefeated but in an earlier meeting (at Newburyport) the Indians barely won (10-9). The Clippers had runners on 2nd and 3rd in the last inning with one out and couldn’t get either run in. The game should be worth seeing.

(I collect my own information and take my own pictures. Mistakes happen.)