Springfield rallies past Randolph in extras to reach final

Cosmos face BFA-Fairfax for championship on Saturday.
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VPA D-2 Softball Springfield rallies past Randolph in extras to reach final Cosmos face BFA-Fairfax for championship on Saturday By Jason Orfao | Jun 12, 2015 Share on print Share on facebook Share on tumblr Share on twitter More Sharing Services 1 Photo by: Chris Doherty The Springfield softball team swarms Lina Geyer after she delivered the game-winning hit on Thursday to send the Cosmos to the VPA Division 2 championship. SPRINGFIELD — Down to its final out, Springfield wasn’t ready to call it a season. The Cosmos pieced together a two-out rally to force extra innings and walked off in the bottom of the ninth with a 2-1 semifinal triumph over Randolph on Thursday at Bill Robinson Field to earn a trip to the VPA Division 2 championship. Randolph certainly had the Cosmos on the ropes, though. Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, Brooke Willey worked a walk to give Springfield a pulse. Lina Geyer followed with a base hit down the left-field line to set the stage for senior standout Chelsea McAllister. “I had to pull myself together and I knew as a senior I needed to pull through for my team,” said McAllister. “I was shaking when I was batting. I knew I needed to do it.” And she did. With the seventh-seeded Galloping Ghosts one strike away from the finals, McAllister happily played the role of heartbreaker and pulled an 0-2 pitch through the hole between third base and shortstop as Willey motored around from second base to knot the game. “I saw Brooke running and my heart was pounding,” said McAllister. “It was an amazing feeling.” “That’s a pretty good person to have up,” said Springfield head coach Andy Bladyka, noting McAllister was hitting .643 over her past nine games. “Her first two at-bats today, she didn’t look very good. It was about the worst I’ve seen her look. But guess what? I’ll still take her anytime.” Randolph pitcher Rachel Johnson — who struck out 16 — prevented further damage to send the game into extra innings, but the momentum was with Springfield and the Cosmos struck again in the ninth. Maygan Daly sparked the game-winning rally, fouling off a 3-2 pitch before drawing a walk. Calista Polidor followed with a sacrifice bunt, but the Randolph catcher tried to gun down Daly at second and no one was covering so everyone was safe. Willey tried to move Daly and Polidor over, but a poor throw pulled the first baseman off the bag which loaded the bases full of Cosmos with no outs. Geyer stepped to the plate and knew what to do. “At first I was really nervous, but I had my team,” said Geyer. “I just had to look at them and they were like, ‘You can do this.’ I just thought, ‘I need to calm down and stay collected.’” The sophomore roped a liner over the shortstop and Daly scooted home to send the Cosmos to the championship for the first time since winning the title in 2011. “It was a wreck, but we pulled it together. We always do. We have our team and that’s really all you need,” said Geyer. “There is no feeling like we just experienced. That was crazy. It’s my first time being in the championship, so I’m ecstatic right now. It’s awesome.” Springfield (14-5), the No. 3 seed, has displayed a knack for emerging victorious in tight games throughout the season. The Cosmos are 6-1 in one-run games this year. “Two outs, nobody on in the bottom of the seventh, did I know we were going to win? ... No,” said Bladyka with a chuckle. “But we did. “They’re a pretty amazing group. I’ve never had a group quite like this in 20 years,” he continued. “They’re laid back, they’re not loud, they don’t get all revved up and crazy. They just keep playing softball and they find a way.” Lost in the theatrics was a brilliant performance in the circle from Springfield junior pitcher Jade Twombly. She twirled all nine innings, struck out nine, walked two and allowed one unearned run. Twombly set down the first 12 Randolph batters she faced, carrying a perfect game into the fifth. However, Alyssa Daubenschmidt worked a walk to give the Ghosts their first base runner of the day and two consecutive errors loaded the bases with no outs. Abi Caswell put the Ghosts in front with an RBI single — Randolph’s first hit of the game — but Polidor came up throwing from center field and Daly, the catcher, applied the tag to Janea Hudson at the plate to record the inning’s first out. Twombly struck out the next batter and allowed a walk, but induced a pop to second baseman Corrina Nichols to leave the bases juiced. “The inning Randolph scored, that could have been a big inning for them and we held it with minimal damange,” said Bladyka. “Even though we made a couple of mistakes that inning, we worked out of it and held them to one run and that keeps us in the game.” Randolph’s only other significant threat was when Daubenschmidt led off the ninth with an infield single, stole second and advanced to third on a grounder to short, which first baseman Cassidy Otis dug up a low throw to record the out and prevent Daubenschmidt from scoring. Twombly got the next batter to pop out to Otis to reach the bottom of the ninth unscathed. It turned out to be the final chance for the Ghosts, who knocked off second-seeded Fair Haven in the quarterfinals. “Somebody has to lose. You never want it to be you,” said Randolph head coach Brandi Comette. “At the beginning of every year, I say everything is practice until we get to playoffs. Of all the teams I’ve ever coached, I feel this team took me the most literally. They just knew they had to come out and play hard and that’s what they’ve done all three games.” Geyer put an end to Randolph’s run and is one of many Cosmos to grow exponentially since the opening practice in March. “She’s a sophomore who has just come leaps and bounds,” said Bladyka of Geyer. “Going into this year, (assistant coach) Mike (Langdon) and I felt like we had four strong players. Now, we feel like we have eight or nine. We have kids that have come so far from March to June. I appreciate how hard those kids have worked.” The result has been a ride to the state title game. The Cosmos will take on top-seeded and undefeated BFA-Fairfax for all the marbles on Saturday at Poultney. First pitch is slated for 5 p.m. McAllister hopes to mirror a bit of family history. “To be here, it’s amazing,” she said. “My mom was the third baseman when they won states in ’86. To follow in her footsteps would be really awesome.” With a championship on the line, Bladyka wants his team to simply stay the course. “What works best with this group of girls is just telling them to stay loose and be themselves,” he explained. “There’s no magic ... or maybe there is.” Eagle Times staff writer Chris Doherty contributed to this report. Box Score SPRINGFIELD 2, RANDOLPH 1 RANDOLPH (11-8) — AB-R-H-RBI: Mariah Farrington rf 4-0-0-0, Jenna Sprague ss 4-0-0-0, Rachel Johnson p 4-0-1-0, Alyssa Daubenschmidt 3b 3-1-1-0, Janea Hudson 2b 3-0-0-0, Emily Grady 1b 4-0-0-0, Abi Caswell cf 4-0-1-1, Emily Cass c 2-0-0-0, Kiara Nonemacher cr-ph 1-0-0-0, Aubrey Pelletier lf 2-0-0-0. Totals 31-1-3-1. SPRINGFIELD (14-5) — AB-R-H-RBI: Brooke Willey ss 3-1-0-0, Lina Geyer rf 5-0-2-1, Chelsea McAllister 3b 4-0-2-1, Cassidy Otis 1b 2-0-0-0, Corrina Nichols 2b 4-0-0-0, Jade Twombly p 2-0-0-0, Alyssa Lucius lf 4-0-1-0, Maygan Daly c 3-1-0-0, Calista Polidor cf 2-0-0-0. Totals 29-2-5-2. Randolph 000 010 000—1 3 1 Springfield 000 000 101—2 5 2 IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO: R — Johnson LP 8-5-2-2-5-16. S — Twombly WP 9-3-1-0-2-9.