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June 26, 2021 · 10:18 pm

Liv DeLong hits walkoff winner

Amesbury Indians are the Division 3 North champions

Ella Bezanson hits home with the game winner

(Amesbury MA) Amesbury captured the Division 3 North title with a 3-2, eight-inning walkoff win over St. Mary’s on Saturday afternoon.

Amesbury takes on D3 South champs Case on Monday night at 5PM at the Amesbury Middle School.

Liv DeLong had the big hit for the (15-0) Indians. The hard-hitting junior drove in Ella Bezanson with the game-winner.

“I couldn’t have had a better setup in the eighth,” explained Amesbury coach Jacqui Waters post-game. “Those are my top two hitters.”

Amesbury had only five hits off the Spartans Lily Newhall but two of them came in the decisive eighth.

Earlier, Lauren Celia gave the Indians the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with a two-run single down the third-base line.

“It felt good to get a hit in a late-season game,” said Lauren.

But the runs didn’t hold up.

St. Mary’s (21-3) took advantage of two Amesbury miscues and tied the score, 2-2, in their half of the sixth inning.

“I liked the way we came back after being down 2-0,” said St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca afterwards.

The Spartans put the pressure on Amesbury in the seventh and eighth.

Felicia D’Alessandro singled with two out in the seventh.

Brooke Mohoney singled and reached second on a Jill Kirby sacrifice bunt with one out in the eighth.

In both situations, Amesbury pitcher Alana Delisle had the defense behind her to keep St. Mary’s from scoring.

“We had an opportunity in the eighth inning and didn’t take advantage of it,” said Coach Pagliuca. “Amesbury had the same opportunity in the eighth inning and took advantage of it.”

That similar situation was having a runner on second base with one out.

After an Ella Delisle popup leading off the decisive eighth, the Indians had their two best hitters whack the two hardest hits of the game.

“I felt it on the end of my bat,” explained Ella Bezanson who doubled to the right centerfield fence, “and I knew it was a good hit.”

In the sixth inning, Amesbury had runners on second and third with two outs. On that occasion St. Mary’s decided to pitch to Alana Delisle even though there was an empty base. The strategy worked perfectly as Spartans’ ace Lily Newhall struck Alana out to end the inning.

Now in the eighth inning, with Ella Bezanson on second base, the option of walking the next batter (Liv DeLong) was again available.

There was a long conference on the mound as the Spartans planned what they would do.

They would pitch to Liv DeLong.

“Liv told me that she was going after the first pitch,” said Coach Waters.

“I was up there ready to hit,” recalled Liv. “I was ready to swing at anything. I saw the first pitch coming and I said, ‘this is it.’”

Liv hit a rope to center field. It hasn’t rained much lately, and the ground out there is hard. Liv’s hit took an up bounce on St. Mary’s CF Marina D’Biasio and Ella was on her way home.

Liv DeLong’s hard hit bounces up on CF Marina D’Biasio in the 8th iinning

“When Liv hit that ball, I was jumping up-and-down inside,” said Ella.

I asked Coach Pagliuca about choosing not to walk Liv DeLong: “I won’t comment on what I told the pitcher. The girl hit the ball. It is what it is at this point. Liv is a good player, and she took advantage of the opportunity.”

The pitching of St. Mary’s Lily Newhall and Amesbury’s Alana Delisle was very impressive.

“Lily kept a powerful lineup off-balance all game,” said Coach Pagliuca.

Lily gave up five hits and had eight strikeouts. The junior had a no-hitter through four innings.

Alana also yielded five hits but had ten strikeouts.

“Alana is probably the hero of the game,” said Coach Waters. “I had no doubt that I was pitching her today.”

“Alana did so well today,” said her sister Ella who is the team’s catcher. “She hit every spot. She’s so good.”

Ella calls the pitches for her older sister.

“Rise balls and changeups were working, as well as a few screwballs,” said Alana. “Ella was smart about how we used them.”

St. Mary’s had won twelve straight. Their losses were to Gloucester and Bishop Feehan.

This season Amesbury has rolled through the Cape Ann League getting no-hitters from Alana Delisle and Liv DeLong as well as mercy-rule endings in most games.

The weather was pleasantly warm.

Good turnout with the spectators located beyond the outfield fence.

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)

Ella Bezanson and Liv DeLong with the team about to join

Alyssa Grossi on her way home with the Spartans 2nd run

Brooke Moloney scores St. Mary’s first run

Olivia Levasseur scores Amesbury’s 2nd run

Izzy Levasseur scores Amesbury’s first run

Lauren Celia tagged out at second by SS Sam Porazinski

Amesbury softball surprises St. Mary’s 4-2 in Division 3 North semifinals

Hayley Catania ended the first and fifth with consecutive strikeouts

Emma DiPietro (triple) scored in the 5th inning to tie the game

(Lowell MA) Neither team expected to even be in this game!

St. Mary’s was young while Amesbury was seriously reconstructed.

On this afternoon, it was the reconstructed team that put enough pieces together to win the Division 3 North softball semifinals 4-2 at Martin Field in Lowell.

The top piece for Amesbury (15-8) was senior Hayley Catania. The AHS pitcher allowed five hits (three of them in the first inning) and struck out ten Spartans. But there’s more to the story: Hayley also had two hits and an RBI. Her alert baserunning keyed one of the Indians runs in the 2-run fifth.

Shortstop Alyssa Grossi makes a nice running catch

Both teams had powered past quarter-final opponents. St. Mary’s had four homers versus Pope John while Amesbury had three long ones against Lynnfield.

Today’s contest had only two loud hits and both of them were by Amesbury. Emma DiPietro had a triple in the 2-run fifth and Hayley had an RBI double in the Indians 2-run seventh.

St. Mary’s (14-9) scratched out a run in the first. Consecutive singles (Felicia D’Alessandro, Marina DiBiasio, Jordan Sullivan) produced a run. This was where Amesbury’s Hayley Catania gave us a glimpse of the kind of game she would have as she then struck out Jennie Iudice and Taylor Sullivan to end the inning.

Amesbury had runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings, but pitcher Lily Newhall kept the ball in the infield and escaped being scored on.

Starting with the 2 K’s in the first inning, Hayley retired eleven in a row including six strikeouts.

While the pitching was terrific for Amesbury they still trailed by a run until the fifth inning.

Emma Catania singled home a run in the 5th but was thrown out stretching it.

Junior Emma DiPietro tripled with one out over CF Christina Nowicki’s head. Hayley Catania walked but on ball four the ball got away from catcher Jordan Sullivan allowing Emma to score and tie the game. Hayley alertly took second when the Spartans concentrated too much on Emma crossing the plate. That alertness paid off for AHS because when her sophomore sister Emma singled to center, Hayley came home with the go-ahead run.

Now down, 2-1, the pressure was on the St. Mary’s offense. Alyssa Grossi singled to center opening the bottom of the 5^th. A sacrifice bunt (Katie O’Neill) moved her to second with one out. But here came Hayley Catania, doing exactly as she had done in the first inning, striking out the next two batters (Angelina Catino and Christina Nowicki) to hold the slim lead.

Emma DiPietro’s triple goes over CF Christina Nowicki’s head

Both teams went down in order in the sixth.

The seventh was not for the weak of heart on either team!

Amesbury put two runners on with no one out on a walk (Emily O’Donnell) and Julia Campbell reaching on an error by pitcher Christina Nowicki. Freshman Maddie DiPietro pinch ran for Emily. That brought up Hayley and St. Mary’s coach Paige Licata had a meeting at the mound.

“We talked about walking her (Hayley),” said Coach Licata. “I told Christina (Nowicki) to keep the ball away from her, and she did, but the ball was still pulled to left. With a hitter like that you take your lumps and hope you can produce more runs.”

Hayley took that outside pitch over LF Julia Nickolau’s head bringing Maddie DiPietro across and getting Julia Campbell to third. Senior Hannaih Burdick’s grounder to second enabled Julia to tally Amesbury’s 4^th run.

Maddie DiPietro (8) and Julia Campbell (10) wait on the bases to see if Hayley Catania’s long fly will be caught….it wasn’t.

Hayley Catania happy to survive the St. Mary’s 7th

The Indians would need those extra runs in St. Mary’s final at-bats. Things started harmlessly enough (for Amesbury) as two Spartans struck out. Then Hayley walked Alyssa Grossi and Katie O’Neill followed with a 2-strike single to right.

Was a miracle comeback about to happen?

The Spartans created a rundown between first and second and Alyssa Grossi scored as Katie O’Neill got back to first safely. Now the tying run was at the plate.

But Hayley got Angelina Catino to fly out to RF Karleigh Walker insuring Amesbury a trip to Saturday’s North final against Austin Prep.

The Indians reaching the D3 North surprised their coach (Jacqui Waters) as much as anyone: “I have only two players playing where they played last year. This is all ecstasy to me. I never thought we’d be here.”

Lily Newhall gave up five hits over six innings.

Coach Paige Licata was surprised that her team made it as well: “We started 0-3 with a team with no seniors and two juniors. Today we used a 7^th grader (Angelina Catino) at first and an 8^th grader (Lily Newhall) pitching. There was no one crying afterwards because everyone will be back.”

Hayley Catania: “To beat St. Mary’s was a first for me. My best pitch today (like against Lynnfield) was my drop curve.”

St. Mary’s had only three outfield outs, all to RF Karleigh Walker.

Coach Waters: “Our two seniors (Hannaih Burdick & Hayley Catania) have held this team together. Often graduated seniors aren’t like that but our two have stayed attentive. We practice three hours a day, six days a week on the basics and go at it as hard as we can. We’ve gotten better and better as the season has progressed. I learned that approach from previous coach Chris Perry and it has paid off.”

Weather looked as if it could rain at any time.

RF Karleigh Walker successfully handled three fly balls including the one that ended the game.

Funny moment: I asked Coach Licata about Hayley’s pitching and she said that she’d coached against her two years ago. She then asked me laughing, “She’s a senior, I hope, isn’t she?”

No one I talked to afterwards knew when the last time was that Amesbury softball had beaten St. Mary’s. Coach Waters guessed that it might have been 2005. It had obviously been a while!

I did see Amesbury soccer defeat St. Mary’s in the tournament this season at Landry Stadium.

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)