BFA-Fairfax tops Springfield to win title, caps perfect season

Photo credit: Doug MacPhee        

The Springfield softball team gathers around the second-place trophy on Saturday after falling 5-1 to BFA-Fairfax in the state championship.

http://eagletimes.villagesoup.com/p/bfa-fairfax-tops-springfield-to-win-title-caps-perfect-season/1361780

VPA D-2 Softball BFA-Fairfax tops Springfield to win title, caps perfect season By Chris Doherty | Jun 15, 2015 Courtesy of: Doug MacPhee The Springfield softball team gathers around the second-place trophy on Saturday after falling 5-1 to BFA-Fairfax in the championship. POULTNEY, VT. — Between Springfield and BFA-Fairfax — the two teams battling for the 2015 VPA Division 2 championship on Saturday afternoon — the programs had won three of the previous four. Springfield claims the title in 2011 and BFA-Fairfax in 2012 and 2013. The Bullets of BFA-Fairfax added a third title with a 5-1 win over the Cosmos at Legion Field. Springfield got off to a quick start against one of the top pitchers in Vermont, Kayla Mathieu, who is a Plymouth State commit. She had a miniscule ERA coming into the championship and averaged double-digit strikeouts this season. Springfield was able to put the ball in play and only struck out six times. Brooke Willey led the game off with a walk after working a full count. Lina Geyer sacrificed her to second base on a bunt and that brought up Chelsea McAllister. McAllister roped one down the left-field line past the left fielder for an RBI triple to give Springfield a 1-0 lead. “That was kind of a wake-up call for us,” BFA coach Geri Witalec said. “To have them strike first it could have gone one of two ways but it really prompted the kids to lock in a zone and play our game.” And lock in they did. Kayla Nester led off in the bottom of the first and took a pay-off pitch into the left-center field gap for a double. Kaitlyn Barnack followed that up with a walk before Chloe White bunted both of them into scoring position. Mathieu singled home Nester and Barnack scored on a wild pitch to give the Bullets a 2-1 lead. After moving to second on the wild pitch, Mathieu scored on an RBI single by Julia Stergas to give BFA-Fairfax a 3-1 lead. “That was huge. That gave us the burst of energy and confidence we needed,” Witalec said. Though there weren’t any errors in the inning, there were a few moments of uncertainty in the field by Springfield. “There were a little jitters early,” Springfield coach Andy Bladyka said. The Bullets added a run in the third on Stergas’ second RBI single of the game. And in the sixth they added their fifth run on back-to-back doubles by Kailyn Hackbart and Nester. The Cosmos had runners in scoring position in the second and fourth innings but Mathieu was able to get out of every inning unscathed. She did have to work hard to do it, but Springfield was unable to get the one big hit to bring the game within reach. “We made her (Mathieu) work and we hit some line drives with people on base but we just didn’t get the breaks today that we’ve been getting, but that’s a credit to Fairfax,” Bladyka said. The win for BFA-Fairfax completed an undefeated campaign. That’s one year after falling in the semifinals going for an unbeaten season. That loss gave the Bullets some experience in the situation they faced Saturday. Asked if they felt the pressure, Witalec said, “I don’t think so, last year we felt it. That kind of got rid of all our pressure demons and coming into today we had experience, we had talent, and the upper classmen really took us through.” After the disappointment of a year ago, finishing this season off with a championship was special for Witalec. “It’s fantastic,” she said. “I’m just thrilled for the kids. These kids live, eat and breathe softball so this is really the cap on a really successful career that these seniors have had.” Springfield may have lost, but Bladyka did not take it as a negative. “I have a smile on my face,” he said. “To me, getting here this year far outweighs losing in the championship game.” McAllister, Maygan Daly, Corrina Nichols and Alyssa Lucius are the four seniors who played their final game as Cosmos Saturday. They all had impacts on the outcome of the 2015 season and Bladyka is going to miss all of them. “Chelsea is a once every 10 or 20 years type of player at our school, any school,” he said. “You can’t ask for a better athlete.” Daly spent the last two years playing in the outfield. But coming into the season Springfield didn’t have anyone to catch for junior standout pitcher Jade Twombly (six innings, six hits, three earned runs, five strikeouts on Saturday) and Daly stepped up and took the job. “Maygan did a tremendous job defensively for us,” Bladyka said. “Corrina went from being one of our weakest hitters last year to stepping into the five spot and she had some huge hits for us during some of those big wins for us and played a solid second base,” Bladyka said. Lucius wasn’t even sure if she was going to play varsity softball this season after playing the past couple of years on the JV team. “We talked her into playing and she ended up being one of those players everyone loved and came up with some huge hits for us.” Bladyka concluded by saying, “Those four seniors were absolutely the glue of this team.” Including the postseason Springfield ends the season with a 14-6 record. “The whole season was a highlight,” Bladyka said. “This group has just been a pleasure to coach all year long and believe me, they’re still winners.” Box Score BFA-FAIRFAX 5, SPRINGFIELD 1 SPRINGFIELD (14-6) — AB-R-H-RBI: Brooke Willey ss 2-1-0-0, Lina Geyer rf 2-0-0-0, Chelsea McAllister 3b 3-0-1-1, Cassidy Otis 1b 2-0-1-0, Corrina Nichols 2b 2-0-0-0, Jade Twombly p 2-0-0-0, Alyssa Lucius lf 3-0-1-0, Maygan Daly c 3-0-0-0, Calista Polidor cf 3-0-0-0, Totals 22-1-3-1. BFA-FAIRFAX (18-0) — AB-R-H-RBI: Kayla Nester c 3-1-2-1, Kaitlyn Barnack ss 3-1-0-0, Chloe White dp 0-1-0-0, Kayla Mathieu p 2-1-1-1, Julia Stergas rf 3-0-2-2, Brooke Hamel 3b 3-0-0-0, Emily Miner 2b 3-0-0-0, Gianna Trono lf 2-0-0-0, Brooke Wheel ph 1-0-0-0, Kailyn Hackbart 1b 3-1-1-0, Hannah Corrigan flex-cf 0-0-0-0. Totals 23-5-6-4. Springfield 100 000 0—1 3 0 BFA-Fairfax 301 001 x—5 6 0 2B: S — Lucius. BFA — Nester 2, Hackbart. 3B: S — McAllister. IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO: S — Twombly LP 6-6-5-3-5-5. BFA — Mathieu WP 7-3-1-1-3-6.