Lynn Babe Ruth 14s softball team captures state title

WINCHESTER – Ginn Park was the Winchester Cathedral for the Lynn Babe Ruth 14-and-under softball team this weekend.The Lynners, by virtue of sweeping their three games, took home the state title and earned the right to compete for the New England championship in two weeks in Littleton, NH.”I’ve been coaching for a couple of years now, and every time we’ve played, we’ve lost to Revere in the first game and have had to battle through the losers’ bracket,” said Lynn manager Bob Connors. “This year, we stayed in the winners’ bracket. We played the strongest two teams. Revere is a great team (two of the three wins were against Revere) and Arlington was a tough team as well. We played the best that was entered in the tournament, and did it with hitting and defense.”Not to mention pitching. The Lynners have four pitchers, and they’re so good that Connors only had to use three of them (“nothing against Jennie Erekson – the fourth one,” said Connors). Brooke L’Abbe pitched the first game Saturday – a 4-3 win over Revere. Mackensie Coppinger had only one bad inning Saturday afternoon (the first, in which wildness cost her three runs), but dominated thereafter in a 9-3 win over Arlington, And yesterday, to wrap up the title, Katie Cuozzo hurled the shutout in a 4-0 win over Revere.Yesterday, Hannah Byrne led the way, going 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Coppinger was 2-for-3 with a double and a run; and leadoff hitter Victoria Viger was 1-for-2, with a double and a run. Chelsey Bartlett and Keri Donovan had clutch hits as well.Lynn took a 1-0 lead in the second when Coppinger scored from second on Carolyn Gouthro’s fielder’s choice. The Lynners got two more in the third. Byrne knocked in Viger, who had doubled, and then scored when she stole third and the throw trying to nail her went into the outfield.Bartlett’s single to left scored Byrne with the final run in the fifth.Lynn broke a 2-2 tie with two runs in the eighth inning in Saturday’s opener and then had to hang on for dear life as L’Abbe got the third out with runners on first and third. L’Abbe only allowed four hits.Coppinger was blinding in the afternoon game against Arlington, fanning 11 and allowing only one hit. Walks hurt her in the second, when Arlington scored all three of its runs.Lynn took a 3-0 lead in against Arlington in the first only to give it back in the bottom of the inning ? and then retook the lead in the second when Byrne singled to right, knocking in Taylor Newhall.The Lynners scored three more in the third on hits by Coppinger, Gouthro and Viger (as well as a leadoff double by Donovan) to make it 7-3, and scored two more in the fifth to complete the scoring.Sunday, Lynn played great defense, Connors said, as Cuozzo struck out seven and allowed only one hit – a leadoff single in the seventh.