By Nick Pantages
@nick_pantages22
11 months ago, in last season’s NEWMAC softball tournament, Alli Olsen delivered a walk-off sacrifice bunt against Coast Guard, keeping the Pride in the winners bracket in their chase to win the conference.
Fast forward to today, and the situation was fairly similar. Breannah McCann standing on third base, Olsen at the plate, looking to keep the Pride at the top of the NEWMAC standings. In what can only be described as deja vu, Olsen smacked the ball perfectly in between the first and second basemen, allowing McCann to score, and walking off Coast Guard for the second year in a row.
“That’s our senior captain,” head coach Kate Bowen said. “She walked off last year against Coast Guard, and we knew she was going to do it again today.”
The win capped off a double-header sweep for the Pride, winning 3-2 and 7-6, moving to 22-6-1 overall and 10-2 in conference play.
In game one, Coast Guard’s bats got to starting pitcher Amelia DeRosa early, beginning the game with a single and a double, with both runners scoring after a couple of groundouts.
Offensively for Springfield, the first two innings were not its best performance, managing just one hit. But then the Pride did what they do best – manufacture runs. Kate Katsetos led off by reaching on an error, two perfectly placed bunts from Ava Rainone and Olsen loaded the bases. After DeRosa grounded into a fielder’s choice, Carissa Pecchia ripped a single through the left side to score Rainone and Olsen, tying the game at two.
They were back at it in the fifth, as Olsen and DeRosa led off the inning with consecutive singles, and two batters later Callie Gendron broke the deadlock with a rocket of a single up the middle, with Olsen avoiding the tag at the plate with a nifty slide.
“We always talk about doing your job,” Bowen said. “When there’s runners on, we know we need to move them, and I think we’ve been doing a really good job of being disciplined at the plate, but also when we get behind in the count, putting it on the ground and really moving those runners.”
DeRosa faced one more challenge on the mound, allowing a leadoff double in the top of the sixth, and a sacrifice bunt allowed the tying run for Coast Guard to stand just 60 feet away. But DeRosa was locked in, forcing a groundout to shortstop that was not able to score the runner from third, and a soft fly ball to right field to escape the inning scoreless.
“[I am] always really confident with our pitchers and our defense, they have all been doing such a great job,” Bowen said.
In the top of the 7th, DeRosa needed just three pitches to end the game with a 3-2 Pride win, their fourth one-run win of the season.
Game two offensively was the opposite for the Pride, as they had traffic on the bases early and often. It started from the first at bat in the first inning, as Olsen singled, advanced on a stolen base, and scored on a Gendron bloop single into no-man’s land behind first base to take an early lead.
They kept it up in the second, as McCann got hit by a pitch, Katsetos reached on an error and Rainone bunted for a hit to load the bases. Olsen drove in the first run with a ground ball that turned into an error, and DeRosa brought in the second runner with a rocket single to left field.
However, Coast Guard was able to limit the damage by throwing Rainone out at the plate, which would prove to be a very important play later.
Ashley Pugliese, who delivered another stellar start, gave up her first hit of the game in the fourth, but McCann and Olsen turned a smooth double play to keep Coast Guard scoreless.
The Pride added two more in the fifth, as DeRosa and Pecchia led off with a single and a double. Sacrifices by Gendron and Michaela Ponticello allowed DeRosa and pinch runner Taylor Falotico to score, giving the Pride a five run cushion.
But the Bears refused to go down without a fight.
Two hits in the top of the fifth signaled that their bats were coming to life again, and in the sixth they struck, scoring twice to cut the Pride’s lead to three.
Prior to the start of the seventh, Bowen decided to mix it up, putting DeRosa back in to pitch the top of the seventh after it seemed Coast Guard had figured out Pugliese.
“Just tried to give them a different look,” Bowen said.
It did not work as intended, as an aggressive approach and inconsistent command led the Bears to score four runs. They started off the inning with four consecutive hits, and after DeRosa managed to get out of the inning, the Pride found themselves with their back against the wall going to the bottom of the seventh.
With the heart of the Springfield lineup coming to the plate, DeRosa started it off with a strong ground ball that was ruled an error, but the Pride had exactly what they needed – a baserunner.
Pecchia dropped a single perfectly behind the second baseman, and smart base running from DeRosa made it runners on the corners. Ponticello hit a slow roller to shortstop that DeRosa scored on, forcing extra innings.
In extras, with a ghost runner on second, DeRosa was flawless. After a sacrifice bunt, she found herself in the same spot as in the top of the sixth in the first game, and the result was the same. Two pop-ups that never left the infield got the Pride to the plate with the game still tied.
McCann was the ghost runner to begin the eighth, and she advanced to third on a Katsetos single. After Tessa Spingola struck out, Olsen stepped up to the plate, driving in McCann and walking the game off.
After such a tough top of the seventh, when some teams may have rolled over and accepted defeat, the resilience of Bowen’s squad to come back did not surprise her at all.
“We are just so together as a team,” Bowen said. “Coast Guard is a great hitting team, and they got a few runs in that inning, but I just knew we were going to come back and score.”
Their Pride’s focus now will turn to Manhattanville on April 23, their final non conference games of the season.
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics.