Patterson, Saugus softball outlast Colantuno, Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD – Over the last few years, the Marblehead and Saugus softball teams have developed quite a friendly little rivalry.Two of the area’s top pitchers – Marblehead’s Courtney Colantuno and Saugus’ Ashlee Patterson – get to hook up twice a year for tingling mound duels, and yesterday was one of those treats.Neither pitcher disappointed. But in the end, Patterson was the winner this round, by virtue of a 5-1 victory over Marblehead for the Sachems’ third straight victory to open the season.Patterson, always a cool customer on the mound, had some help. Her offense – of which she was in the middle – broke open a close game with three runs in the top of the seventh. And her defense was spectacular.”I don’t think they made an error,” said Marblehead’s John Gold. He was correct. Saugus fielded flawlessly, perhaps because new coach Bobbie Finocchio has put a strong emphasis on defense (so much so that players must do a little running if they lose focus in practice and boot a ball).”Yes,” she laughed, “we DO do a lot of running. But our defense helped win the game for us today.”It did indeed ? especially in the sixth inning, when, with a runner on second and none out, and Saugus clinging to a 2-1 lead, shortstop Lauren Garchinsky made a play that might have made the Red Sox’ Julio Lugo jealous. Diving to her right, she snared Sam Norman’s grounder that was headed into the hole. Initially, it appeared as if Garchinsky – at the very least – kept a run off the board. But the runner on second kept going to third, and Garchinsky got up and threw a strike to third baseman Haley Erickson, who got a sliding Kate Fallon out with inches to spare.”We made some mistakes,” acknowledged Gold. “We made some errors, but hey, we’ll go to practice tomorrow and go over those things about 10 times. We’ll be OK.”The play pretty much took the wind out of Marblehead’s sails. And it sparked Saugus to a three-run seventh-inning rally.In the age-old tradition of the person making the defensive gem leading off the next inning, Garchinsky smoked a double to left field. Samantha Russo (3-for-3, 3 RBI) followed with a single through the hole in left, and took second on the throw home trying to nail Garchinsky.After Erickson flied to shallow left, Kelly Garrity roped a single just inside the third-base bag that brought Russo home. Patterson kept the inning going by reaching on an error. Garrity took third on the play and scored the third run of the inning on a passed ball after her sister Kristen struck out.Patterson, who was in trouble several times, mowed the Magicians down to close the game.”Samantha Russo had a fantastic game,” Finocchio said. “It was her first start. I had her in there specifically to bunt, but she got down 0-2 all three times she was up. But she got hits anyway.”And Patterson was great, too,” she said. “She was throwing a high riser and it was working very well.”Saugus got out in front early when Russo lined a single to left that scored both Elizabeth Shaw and Garchinsky. Marblehead got a run back in the third when Silvie Cohen led off with a single, took second on a wild pitch, and scored on Mandy James’ base hit.