RallyNorth.net

Fri, May 30, 2008 03:30 PM @ Amesbury

Team	Final
Playoff Game North Division 2 - Round 1
Dracut	2
Amesbury	5

Amesbury hangs on to topple Dracut

Saturday, May, 31 By Evan Mugford
Staff writer

AMESBURY | It wasn't perfect and it wasn't exactly pretty, but the Amesbury High softball team has gotten past the first round of the Division 2 North state tournament.

The Indians didn't make it easy for themselves, committing two easily avoidable errors. But behind the arm of Jordan Oliva and the bat and defense of Laura Kaminski, they still came away with a 5-2 victory over the Dracut Middies.

The eighth-seeded Indians (15-6) will now travel to face top-seeded Concord-Carlisle (20-1) tomorrow in Concord at 3 p.m. in the quarterfinals in hopes of extending their tourney dreams.

Despite giving up nine hits, Oliva only gave up two runs and one walk while fanning eight batters.

"We knew that Dracut had a lot of slappers and that they were going to be fast and were pretty well-rounded," said Oliva. "But as the game went on, all our practice for push-bunts and slap-bunts seemed unnecessary, because they weren't doing any of that. It was a little unexpected."

"I thought we looked a little rusty," added Amesbury head coach Chris Perry, who explained that any and every team from the Merrimack Valley Conference brings a hard-nosed style of play. "Both teams had a lot of baserunners, but neither could really capitalize. It wasn't until after the fourth inning did we really buckle down and play some good softball."

Since Perry arrived as coach in 1985, the Indians are 456-83 with 16 league titles and four state championships.

The Indians got things going in the bottom half of the first. After a Kaminski (1 for 2, one run, 2 RBIs) walk and a pair of singles by Abby Pare and Gabrielle Magnifico, Kelsey Fournier (2 for 3) singled to left to bring in the first Amesbury run. From that point, Dracut's Victoria Hall did a good job of leaving the bases loaded and finishing the inning with minimal damage.

The ninth-seeded Middies (12-7) scored two in the second. The first was off a triple by Sally Berger, and the second just seconds later when a wild pitch by Oliva prompted Berger to trot home. Amesbury tied things up in the bottom half of the inning when Katelyn Bartley smashed a home run to left-center.

The contest turned into a pitching duel with Hall throwing some nice off-speed pitches and Oliva striking out batters and giving her infield a chance to shine.

In the bottom of the fourth, Fournier singled to left and eventually moved to third after two consecutive passed balls. Kate Hathaway and Bartley walked to load the bases, and after two close outs at home, Kaminski delivered a two out, two-run single, keeping the decision away from the umpire and boosting the Indian lead to 4-2.

From there, it was a mixture of sweet pitching by Oliva and smooth grabs by Kaminski that continued to stifle any Dracut threats offensively. The Indians helped themselves by adding another run in the bottom of the sixth when Anna Kate Webber was driven home by her older sister, Jackie.

Dracut didn't leave quietly, however, as they put the tying run at the plate in the top of the seventh and final inning. But Oliva, as nonchalantly as possible, snagged a line drive and cooly tossed it over to first for a game-ending double play.

Freshman third baseman Kaminski was equally glad with the win as she was about getting rid of her first post-season jitters.

"It was a lot scarier than I thought it was going to be," said Kaminski. "There were a lot more spectators than usual.

"It was a really tough game," she added. "We're going to have to play really great ball to keep advancing. No more errors."

"Concord-Carlisle is a good team who plays a lot of Division 1 competition," said Perry. "We're certainly going to have to play better than we did today."