TAUNTON, Mass. – In Silver Lake’s 8-6, 11 inning win over King Philip in the D1 South Semifinal on Thursday night, the Lakers came back from a 5-0 deficit to walk off with a victory. On Saturday, Silver Lake jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the sectional final and made sure that Taunton could not do to them what they did to the Warriors.
“When we jumped up 4-0, I kept reminding them that it’s the tournament,” Silver Lake head coach Tony Pina said. “We came back from a bigger deficit, you cannot count them out, especially on their home field.”
Laker pitcher Maddy Barone was instrumental in holding off Taunton, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out 10 as the Lakers captured a 4-2 win and the D1 South Sectional championship.
“Early on, [Barone] was throwing a great screwball,” Taunton head coach Dave Lewry said. “She had everybody tied up inside and everybody was just pushing the bat at the ball. We had been looking for the rise because we had heard and seen that she had a great rise ball but we didn’t really see a lot of that today. It was mainly the screwball that we had the most trouble with.”
An error and two infield singles loaded the bases for Shannon Grindle, who hit the walk off, two-run home run in Silver Lake’s win over KP. This time, a walk pushed across the first run of the game. Jennifer Riordan then drove in two more runs on an infield single as the Lakers led 3-0 after an inning.
In the second, Hannah Johnson lined one to center that landed just in front of a lunging Taunton center fielder Kelly Reading. Caroline Videtto scored the fourth Laker run of the game on the play, but Reading made a strong and accurate throw from center to gun down a runner at the plate and escape with no further damage.
“That was tough to fall behind 4-0,” Lewry said. “I told the kids I couldn’t be prouder of the team. They hung in there and didn’t quit down 4-0. Silver Lake was crushing everything for the first four innings, but they hung in there, never quit, and they finally started getting the bats going a little bit.
Barone retired 10 straight Tigers from the second to the fifth innings before Taunton started to come to life offensively. Meghan Navarro hit a one out single to left field and advanced to second on the misplayed ball. Kya Enos followed with a triple that found the right center field gap, scoring Navarro from second. Amber Wainwright then scored Enos from third with a sacrifice bunt.
Taunton had a chance in the top of the seventh as Jordan Wade reached with a one out infield single deep in the whole between third and shortstop, but Wade was then forced out at second on a ground ball and Barone got the final out with a foul pop up.
“We made it competitive and we had a shot there in the last inning,” Lewry said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the team, they showed what they were made of today.”
Taunton finishes the season 23-3 after advancing to its first D1 South Final since falling to Braintree in 2008.
“It was a great season for us,” Lewry said. “You go 23-3, you have to look back and forget about the last game sometimes and reflect back. It was a tremendous season. We haven’t been this deep in the tournament in a long time. It felt real good to be here and be relevant again at tournament time.”
Although Taunton will lose Hockomock League MVP Kelly Reading, the Tigers will return nine of 10 starters from the D1 South Final, and Lewry expects to be back in contention next season.
“We’re going to miss [Reading] tremendously,” Lewry said. “Trying to replace her is going to be extremely difficult, but when you’ve got nine or 10 other starters coming back, you’ve got to feel pretty good that we’ll be in the mix again next year.”
Silver Lake now advances to the D1 State semifinal and will play the winner of the North sectional, Medford or Methuen, on Tuesday at 7:00 in Taunton.