Harvard, Melson shut down Burlington

Cray Allen knew when he took over the Burlington Central girls softball program that there would be days of growing pains to endure with an exceptionally young and inexperienced team.

Thursday was one of those days, but don’t think for a minute Allen is willing to keep using youth and inexperience as a reason for losing games.

Harvard junior Lindsay Melson struck out 12 and the Rockets committed 4 errors as Harvard downed BC 6-3 in a key early-season Big Northern East matchup on Rocket Hill.

“She pitched well and we let her get comfortable,” said Allen of Melson, who threw a perfect game against Alden-Hebron last week. “Our young kids still don’t understand that. She painted the outside corner and we gave her a lot of opportunities to be good today.”

The Hornets (8-3, 2-1) jumped on BC freshman Brooke Gaylord for 4 runs in the first two innings. Leadoff hitter Stephanie Stephens doubled to lead off the game and came home on a first-and-third double steal later in the inning. Stephens then had an RBI single, Gaylord hit a batter with the bases loaded and another run scored on an infield error in the second to stake Harvard to a 4-0 lead.

The Hornets made it 6-0 in the top of the fourth when Sam Herely doubled and scored on a triple from Carlie Gabrys, who scored Harvard’s final run of the day on a throwing error.

The Rockets, who had a 5-game winning streak snapped, did come back to touch Melson for a run on Emily Bell’s solo homer in the bottom of the fourth and then two more runs in the fifth. Rebecca Roscher doubled, Lauren King singled, Melanie Gajewski laid down a sacrifice bunt to move King to second, and freshman leadoff hitter Bekah Harnish cranked out a 2-run double.

But Melson settled down and allowed only a sixth-inning double to Gaylord and a seventh-inning walk to Harnish as the Hornets jumped into a three-way tie for first place in the league with BC (7-6, 2-1) and Marengo.

Gaylor allowed 10 hits but did have 9 strikeouts in suffering the loss.

“We know we’re young and we know we’re going to go through some ups and downs defensively,” said Allen, whose team will play Class 3A power Chatham-Glenwood (13-1) in the first round of the Larkin Slugfest Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Elgin Sports Complex.

“But at some point you an’t say you’re young and inexperienced anymore. We digressed some today and we took a real punch in the face about where we are and where we want to be.”