Surprising Cosmos edge Otters, go to 5-0

Andy Bladyka is becoming a believer.

Published April 29, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Surprising Cosmos edge Otters, go to 5-0 By POODY WALSH Correspondent SPRINGFIELD — Andy Bladyka is becoming a believer. “I’m still having a hard time realizing we’re 5-0,” is what Springfield softball coach commented after his Cosmos pulled out their third straight one-run win with a 4-3, eight-inning victory over Otter Valley Tuesday afternoon at Bill Robinson Field. Graduation took six starters and Bladyka was reluctant to use the word rebuilding when talking about his team before the season began. “If anybody told me we would be 5-0 at this point in the season I wouldn’t have believed them,” he said. Thursday’s win was a strange one in that the Cosmos were out-hit 9-3, but the Otters left 11 runners on. “It is certainly a game we could have won,” said Otter Valley coach Pattie Candon, whose team gave up 46 runs and lost its first three games to Division I teams before bouncing back Saturday with a 10-4 win over Mount Abraham. “We’re getting better,” she said. “We’ll just keep working hard every day.” The game had some dramatic moments, the biggest a huge two-run, seventh-inning homer by Otter Valley’s Gabby Poalino. The Otters entered the inning trailing 3-1 after leaving the base loaded in the sixth. With one down in the seventh Maia Edmunds cracked a single to right and Poalino followed with a drive over the left fielder’s head and before the ball could be tracked down, Edmunds scored and Poalino circled the bases to tie the game. Springfield scored the winning run in the eighth when Maygan Daly singled and scored all the way from first when the throw to get Jade Twombly at first after a sacrifice attempt rolled deep down the right field line in foul territory. Twombly and Otter Valley’s Hannah Williams both pitched complete games. Twombly, who has been the winning pitcher in all five Springfield games, was tough when it mattered most as she was touched up for nine hits, but the Otters had trouble connecting when it counted. She threw 136 pitches, striking out 10 and walking three. Williams, who got a lot of mileage out of a changeup, tossed 123 pitches. She fanned seven and walked five, but three of those she walked eventually came around to score. Williams walked Brooke Willey in the first inning and she later scored on an infield out. In the fifth she walked the first two batters. A wild pitched moved both runners up, but Williams looked like she might get out of it when the runners were still there after two pop-ups. However, on a 3-2 pitch to Chelsea McAllister the senior sent a hard shot between third and short and both runners scored. Otter Valley scored a single run in the fifth when Laura Beth Roberts walked, moved up on an error and scored on Edmunds’ base knock. Edmunds and Alyssa Falco each two hits for the Otters. Otter Valley, 1-4, has two more games this week with Leland & Gray coming to Brandon on Thursday and the Otters going to Hartford on Friday. Springfield will host Brattleboro in the first night game of the season at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.