NORTH EASTON, Mass. – The case of the yips in the field that infected the Red Sox last night seemed to jump to Oliver Ames' softball team, who played themselves to a 3-0 loss to Weymouth on the back of an error plagued second inning.
The inning started off with a base hit from Emily Keefe, who then moved to second as Renee Finnigan reached on an error. Two batters later, a throwing error would once again doom the Tigers, scoring Keefe and Finnigan to move to third and Sarah Mullen to reach second on what could have been a ground out.
It would go from bad to worse for Oliver Ames as the inning wore on, as Finnigan scored on a fielder’s choice and Mullen moved to third. On the next at-bat Mullen would put a bookend on the rally, scoring on a wild pitch to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Cassidy Fall triumphed on the mound, pitching a complete game shut out. She allowed just four hits in the ball game while striking out three on her way to the victory.
After the final out was made, head coach Kevin Mackin had nothing but favorable words for Fall, saying, “Cassidy is a sophomore, and she keeps working at it and working at it. Any time in softball that you have a pitcher that can throw like that it keeps you from having to score too many runs, and that was obviously a huge help for us today ”
The first scoring chance for the Tigers came during the third inning, as they put runners on second and third after a single from Sarah Struzik and a double from Liz Bullock to start the frame. Fall was able to stop the bleeding however, retiring three straight hitters to neutralize the scoring chance.
Weymouth would put runners in scoring position again in the fifth inning as they looked to put the final nail in the Tigers' coffin. Struzik, who started in the circle for OA, refused to let the contest become a blow out after allowing Emily Cronin to single, hitting Sarah Finnigan with a pitch, and throwing a wild pitch to allow them to reach second and third.
She came up big with her glove, retiring the next two hitters with putouts. The former of the two required her most highlight-worthy moves, stabbing a frozen rope as she dropped to the ground to get out of the way of the hard shot.
Struzik capped her day at five innings thrown, allowing three runs though none of them earned, and striking out one.
The Tigers would look respond to their pitchers' toughness with a tough showing of their own, putting runners on second and third with one away. Fall once again stood in the fire, retiring two consecutive hitters to escape another jam.
Mackin had particular praise for Fall's resilience, escaping two one out jams in the third and fifth innings. “It takes a lot of strength and a lot of fortitude to do that...For her to do that is a great indicator for later on...She's a poised kid, and that was huge”
In their final two frames, Oliver Ames managed just one base runner on a dropped third strike in the seventh inning as Fall collected the shut-out win.
Oliver Ames will be back in action with a key Davenport game when they host Milford on Monday.
Brendan Murray can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @MurraySportTalk.