Marengo topples Burlington Central again
The Big Northern East Conference softball torch has apparently been passed.
After five straight conference championships, Burlington Central will now need nothing short of a miracle to make it six in a row after the Rockets were thumped 8-1 by Marengo Thursday on wind-swept Rocket Hill.
Marengo, now 21-3 overall, is 6-0 in the East with 4 games to play. Harvard trails the Indians by 1 game in the loss column and the two play next Tuesday. Burlington Central (7-7 overall) is virtually out of the league race at 3-3.
"You can't take anything away from them. They're a great ballclub," said Rockets' acting head coach Lowell Oranger. "They take care of business when they have to. They play Softball 101. We've had good battles with them over the years and this year the tables have turned."
If Marengo closes out the East title, it will be the Indians' first since they shared it with BC in 2005. This is also the first time in Dwain Nance's four years as Marengo coach that the Indians have beaten the Rockets twice.
"I couldn't get a win over them the last three years," smiled Nance, whose team won its 15th straight game. "We're really proud and pleased about the way we're playing right now."
Central senior starter Jet Kein held the Indians in check for two innings, and then the Rockets' defense committed 2 errors that allowed Marengo to score 3 unearned runs in the top of the third. Chloe Montgomery belted a two-run double with one out after the Rockets had made two infield errors to allow runners on.
"Those infield errors really hurt," said Oranger. "We can't have those."
The Rockets came back and made it a 3-1 game in the bottom of the third and had a chance to tie but Marengo senior Danielle Simons worked out of a jam. Cassie Warner singled with one out and went to third on Sarah Kisch's ground-rule double. Senior Ashley Scheffler then delivered a run-scoring single to left field and took second on a wild pitch to put the tying runs in scoring position. Simons got Haley Albamonte to pop out to third and after walking No. 3 hitter Sam Gruner, who had singled up the middle in the first inning, struck out cleanup hitter Emily Bell to end the threat.
"We were fortunate to get out of that inning with just one run," said Nance.
From there, Simons (14-2) shut the Rockets down, not allowing another hit. She retired 12 of the Rockets' final 14 batters, issuing a walk to Scheffler in the fifth and hitting a batter in the seventh. She finished with a 4-hitter, 7 strikeouts and 2 walks and Marengo played errorless defense behind her, making several good catches of windblown pop up and fly balls.
While Simons was holding BC to nothing, the Indians scored 2 runs in the fifth, one on another RBI double from Montgomery. They added one in the sixth on an RBI double from Stephanie Cartwright and two more in the seventh when the Rockets committed two of their 5 errors in the game.
"One through nine we produced," said Nance. "We swung the bats and we played really good defense. Burlington is always disciplined and does a nice job."