RallyNorth.net

Fri, May 23, 2008 03:45 PM @ Manchester Essex

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Final
Greater Lowell	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manchester Essex	0	2	0	2	0	1	0	5

Hornets end season with a win

Saturday, May, 24 By Nick Curcuru
Correspondent

The Manchester Essex softball team came into yesterday's season finale against Greater Lowell looking to accomplish two things:

First, the Hornets wanted to win their final game of the season, which would give them a better final record than last season.

Second, they wanted to send seniors Lindsey Cambridge, Alex Zager and Maeve Cullinan off with a bang.

Sure enough, the Hornets were able to pull out a 5-0 victory over the Gryphons at Sweeney Park lead by Cambridge's complete-game, three-hit shutout.

"This was a great way to end the season," Cambridge said. "We started out the season a little slow but we picked it up toward the end, the girls did a great job and I had a great time this year."

The Hornets (8-11) were in control the entire game as Cambridge allowed just one runner to reach scoring position while striking out nine.

Cambridge got Manchester Essex out to an early 1-0 lead when she homered over the scoreboard in the second inning. The Hornets made it 2-0 later in the inning when Julia Martz scored on a Cullinan groundout after reaching on a single.

The Hornets doubled their lead in the fourth inning. Martz made it 3-0 when she doubled in Cambridge who had singled. Martz later scored on a fielding error to make it 4-0. Cambridge added another run in the sixth when she came home on a wild pitch after doubling.

Cambridge and Martz accounted for all of the offense, combining for all five hits and scoring all five runs. Needless to say, Hornets head coach Mike Mullarkey was happy with what he saw.

"We played pretty well today," Mullarkey said. "Lindsey pitched really well and got a lot of weak ground balls and the defense backed her up."

The Hornets will now look ahead to the 2009 season. Manchester Essex will only lose three players from this year's squad and they will be returning six starters, including leading hitter Breezy DiPietro, who was forced to leave yesterday's game after a collision on a pop-up.

"Breezy is already our best coach on the field," Mullarkey said. "She didn't want to come out of the game today but I had to take her out. She can hit and she can run. She makes things happen and I am looking forward to having her back next year."

Mullarkey also cautioned that the team will still be young next season as DiPietro and Dawn Kerrigan will be the only seniors.

All in all, Mullarkey was happy with the Hornets season. Manchester Essex finished a game and a half out of a state tournament berth but played every team tough.

"We had an alright season," Mullarkey said. "We had a tough schedule this year and we took our lumps but we were still able to hold our own against every team we played. This team fights hard and likes to compete, they quietly go about their business and play hard day in and day out."