http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110605/SPORTS/706059971
Published June 5, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
No. 1 Springfield slips past Middlebury, 5-4
By POODY WALSH
SPRINGFIELD — Top-seeded Springfield needed a clutch, two-out single in the bottom of the 10th inning to nip upset-minded Middlebury, 5-4, in a nail-chewing-to-the nub Division II quarterfinal game Saturday at Bill Robinson Memorial Field.
The Cosmos, at 12-4, were the big favorites against the ninth-seeded 5-10 Tigers, but nothing separated the two teams until the Haskell family took care of things in the 10th inning.
Jessie Haskell started the 10th when she legged out a grounder that was bobbled at short. She went to second on Amanda Farnsworth’s sacrifice and to third on Megan Courchesne’s infield bouncer. This brought Jessie Haskell’s little sister Kaylee to the plate. The count went to 1-1 and then she sent the ball back up the middle to drive in the game-winning run.
“We gave them a double dose of Haskell,” Springfield coach Andy Bladyka said.
The win sends the Cosmos into the semifinals at 4:30 on Wednesday against Fair Haven. That game will also be played in Springfield. The Slaters advanced by eliminating U-32 on Saturday.
The win overshadowed a powerful pitching performance from Middlebury’s Jen Gipson. The thin right-hander, who spent most of the season rehabbing from an April injury, threw 142 pitches. She had a tough start, giving up three first-inning runs, but the two runs she gave up the rest of the game were both unearned. She had seven strikeouts with two walks and scatted seven hits over the final nine innings.
Gipson’s performance, as well as that of the rest of the team, brought a big grin on the face of Middlebury coach Marie Eugair.
“This is the team that I knew I had all year long,” Eugair said.
Springfield used two freshmen pitchers, with Amanda Allen going the first seven-plus innings and Sara Locke getting the win with three innings of relief.
When Springfield took a 3-l lead in the first inning, it was no surprise as the Cosmos were a team that had excelled most the season matched up against a struggling club. But after Gipson got rid of the early jitters she was nailing the corners and keeping the Cosmos off balance with her change.
“That’s her all right,” said Eugair. “She doesn’t throw many pitches right down the middle.”
Springfield had to escape two tough late-game situations to get the game to the 10th inning. In the seventh with the score tied 3-3, the Tigers had runners on second and third with one out and Mattase Bagley at the plate. Bagley was already 3-for-3, including a home run, and with first base open ,Bladyka told Allen to throw four wide ones. However, on what would have been ball four, Bagley reached across the plate and popped out. Locke then induced an infield grounder and the Cosmos had escaped.
Then in the eighth inning, Middlebury scored a run in the top of the frame and the first two batters went down for Springfield in the bottom of the inning. Jessie Haskell, who would later ignite the winning run in the 10th, kept the eighth inning alive when she singled to left and was able to move up as the ball was bobbled. Emma Estey went in to run for Haskell and she would play a part in a little more drama as Amanda Farnsworth got perhaps the biggest hit of her life when she singled up the middle. There looked like there might be a play on Estey, but the ball was first bobbled and then thrown wildly.
“I think there’s a little magic in this team,” said Bladyka. “We seem to bend, but we don’t break.”
Bagley’s home run came in the first and it was a bomb to left. Middlebury scored a run in the third on Bagley’s two-out single. In the fifth, the Tigers got an unearned run and in the eighth Theresa Huestis had a run-producing single.
In the three-run first inning, Jessie Haskell had an RBI single and Courschesne had a two-run double to right.
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