http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120407/SPORTS02/704079921
Published April 7, 2012 in the Rutland Herald
Sanborn, Cosmos blank Raiders
By POODY WALSH
Herald Correspondent
SPRINGFIELD — Heather Sanborn tossed a one-hitter as Springfield, the defending Division II champions, knocked off Division I Rutland Friday afternoon at Bill Robinson Field, 5-0.
Sanborn walked just one, hit a batter and had eight strikeouts in a 77-pitch effort. The only hit off her was a line single down the left field line by clean-up hitter Jesse Smyrski with one out in the seventh inning. Fifty of her pitches were strikes.
The win brought the Cosmos to 2-0 while the Raiders are at 1-1.
It wasn’t an effort that particularly pleased Rutland coach Dick Wright, who cited difficulties with getting the bunt down, taking too many pitches in the strike zone and offering at pitches out of the strike zone.
“We also threw the ball around too much,” Wrightsaid. “Springfield is a solid team that doesn’t make many mistakes. Hey, but we’ll get better.”
Rutland also got a nice pitching effort for Chelsea Poljacik, who tossed a six-hitter with two walks and three strikeouts. However, there were a couple of strange incidents that hurt her. One was when she was called for an illegal pitch with runners on first and second that moved the runners up and they eventually came around to score. Another Springfield run came in from third when a throwback from the catcher eluded Poljacik.
Springfield lost most of its offensive thrust to graduation, but got a lot of mileage with the bunt and hits at the right time. For that, head coach Andy Bladyka cited assistant Mike Langdon for doing diligence with the batters.
“I can’t say enough about what Mike does for the offensive part of our game,” Bladykasaid. “And he has a way that about doing it that the players like.”
If there was a key moment in the game it came in the Rutland fourth. The Raiders were behind 2-0 at that point. Marissa Masse led off the inning with the only walk off Sanborn. A wild pitch and stolen base followed and Masse was on third with no outs. Twice the Raiders tried to get the bunt down and failed as the next two batters eventually struck out. Sanborn then got a soft fly to left that for the third out. The only other Rutland base runner was Smyrski in the seventh.
Springfield got the offense going in the third. With one down Emma Esty, who had two hits on the day, singled to right. Julia Stein then dropped a bunt down the third base line and legged it out. Then came the illegal pitch as Smryski. After Sara Locke walked to load the bases, Esty scored when the throw back to the mound rolled out to second base.
Stein scored as Jill Rushton rolled out to second. Springfield added three more runs in the sixth that were also a bit tainted. With Jen Stein on first base and no outs, freshman Chelsea McAllister, who also had two hits, got a bunt base hit and when Rutland threw the ball around, Stein came all the way home. McAllister then scored as Meghan Courchesne doubled to left and it got to 5-0 when Esty singled Courchesne home.
The Springfield defense made just one harmless error in the sixth.
“For an April 6 game I’m awful pleased with the way we played today,” Bladyka.said
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