Softball: Maine South turns away Prospect

Maine South's 6-1 softball team came into Saturday's nonconference softball game knowing it would be in for a test against a visiting Prospect team that owned a 6-4 mark.

"Our only loss was to Loyola and we knew that Prospect had beaten them," said Hawks junior third baseman Mia Lee. "So we came into this game knowing we had to put in a lot of work."

Lee assessed the situation quite accurately as the hosts used a workmanlike effort to edge the Knights 2-1 in a game that went down to the final out.

After getting to within 2-1 on Alexandra Garnmeister's RBI groundout to short that scored Erin Pinter (led off the seventh with a double), Prospect had the tying run on third base with two outs when Lee made a leaping grab of Georgianna Cruddle's line drive to secure the victory.

Lee, who also made a nifty diving catch of a pop bunt in the fifth inning, scored South's first run in the third inning. She reached on an infield hit, took second on Colleen Griffin's sacrifice bunt and advanced to third on a passed ball. She then scored on Caelan Fogarty's groundout to short to make it 1-0.

The Hawks got their second run in the bottom of the sixth when Kaylin Fahy (2-for-2, walk) led off with a single to center and stole second. She got to third on Ali Biagi's groundout and came home on a two-out infield error to make it 2-0.

"With the windy conditions, our coach (Emmy Pasier) really preached to just go after base hits," Lee said, "She said 'don't go crazy.' "

Winning pitcher Sam Bergeron (2-1) had a crazy stretch when she struck out eight consecutive batters after a pop out for the first out of the second inning. The sophomore took a no-hitter into the sixth inning when Carley Jagiello singled to left with two outs.

"Sam was our girl today," Pasier said. "A no-hitter is great but a win is what matters. That is a very good Prospect team."

"Rachel (Hoffman) did a good job calling the game," said Bergeron, who struck out nine and only walked Jagiello to start the game. "It was a lot of rise and curveballs. I like when I get the lead. That makes it a lot easier."

Prospect sophomore pitcher Ashley Simon gave up only 4 hits while striking out two. She also had a key single in the seventh inning that got Erin Pinter to third base.

"It was probably Ashley's best game," said Prospect coach Krystina Mackowiak. "She kept us in the game and kept their hitters off balance. I thought defensively we had a great game, too.

"We just got the offense going a little too late. Their pitcher was good and kept us off balance. Unfortunately we didn't make adjustments until the end. It was good to get that run in the top of the seventh just to show that we were in the game, This is a good game for us to learn from."