http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110610/SPORTS05/110610015/Springfield-stops-Lyndon-Division-II-softball-state-title
Springfield stops Lyndon for Division II softball state title
11:34 PM, Jun. 10, 2011 |
POULTNEY — After yielding a long home run in the first inning, Springfield pitcher Heather Sanborn responded with uncommon poise for a freshman and hurled the Cosmos to a 5-3 victory over Lyndon in the Division II high school softball state championship Friday.
With two outs in the first, LI’s Kayla Franklin sent a Sanborn pitch over the center field fence, giving the Vikings a 2-0 lead before top-seeded Springfield (15-4) had come to bat.
But if Franklin’s drive unsettled Sanborn, she quickly recovered, keeping the third-seeded Vikings (12-6) in check until her teammates mustered a four-run fourth. Once given the lead, Sanborn retired 10 straight until Carys Potter launched a one-out homer in the top of the seventh, a shot that failed to deter Springfield from clinching its first title since 1986.
“I knew that we could get back into it so I just had to settle down, relax a little bit more and just come out and do my best,” said Sanborn of Franklin’s blast to straightaway center.
Sanborn finished a five-hitter, striking out nine, in what she said was “definitely one of my better games.”
“I have three freshmen pitchers and each one of them pitched one of these playoff games and none of them act like freshmen,” said Springfield coach Andy Bladyka. “They all have composure, they’re tough; I didn’t worry about Heather a bit to be honest with you. She’s a tough kid. You can’t crack her.”
The Vikings’ downfall came in the Springfield fourth when Cosmos hits and execution combined with Lyndon errors and misplays to fuel a four-run inning.
Amanda Farnsworth (three hits) and Meghan Courchesne each singled. Kaylee Haskell followed with a drive to center that was misplayed into a double, scoring Farnsworth. Courchesne then scored on a dropped toss at the plate on Kristin Cook’s bunt. Jenna Paul followed with a sacrifice fly and Alexis Locke bunted across the fourth run.
“I told the girls we have the offense, we have the defense and we have the pitching so if we execute, we can win this game,s” Bladyka said. “The execution in that inning ... the hits, the bunts, we had a pull-back single, the base-running, we put all the pieces together.”
“We had errors. Errors on defense are going to lose a game. Our defense didn’t do the job,” said LI coach Mike John. “I think we gave up five or six outs that inning.”
After that, Sanborn quieted Lyndon until Potter homered.
“She mixed up her pitches enough to confuse our batters,” John said of Sanborn. “The last two games, we’ve gotten 15 or 17 hits ... today we just didn’t group them together. We had two long balls, but we had nobody on.”
Becca Simpson took the loss for LI, yielding five runs and nine hits while striking out three and walking one.
Contact Free Press correspondent Ted Ryan at TedRyanVT@aol.com
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