St. Mary’s softball off and running with win over Lowell Catholic

LYNN ?About the only thing you can say about Thursday’s St. Mary’s-Lowell Catholic Division 3 North softball preliminary round game is that the Spartans won and nobody got hurt.Beyond that, it’s onto Shawsheen Saturday in the renewal of a tournament rivalry that was one of the hottest in the sport in the early part of the decade.The Spartans easily dispatched the Lady Crusaders Thursday at Breed, 15-0, needing only 41/2 innings to complete the job.And while St. Mary’s didn’t have any trouble finding the range against Greater Lowell’s Courtney Vinal, they got a lot of help from the Lady Crusaders’ defense, which committed seven errors to go along with 10 St. Mary’s hits.”We did get a lot of help,” St. Mary’s coach Colleen Newbury acknowledged, “but on the other hand, we hit a lot of balls hard. We hit some rockets right at people.”And that’s true. Many of the Lowell Catholic errors came off balls that were hit hard enough to glance off gloves.”It was a good start for us,” said Newbury. “We had a little trouble the first time through the lineup. We had to get used to (Vinal) a little bit. But once we did, I thought we hit the ball pretty well.”Sam Kiley was tough on the mound, giving up only two hits and walking one.”We’ll take it,” Newbury said.St. Mary’s scored its first run on an error in the first inning. With two out, Erin McAndrews reached on an error, and courtesy runner Michelle Macchione stole second, and came around to score on a two-base error.The wheels fell off the Lowell Catholic wagon in the third inning, as the Spartans scored nine runs ononly three hits, and a whole lot of Lowell Catholic miscues. The big hits in the inning were Kristen Mondello’s two-run single and Kiley’s two-run double. St. Mary’s also scored two runs on wild pitches.Kiley had been robbed of extra bases in the second inning by a nice running catch by Lowell Catholic center fielder Brooke Riley.”So,” said Newbury,” I’m happy for her that she got one the next time up.”It was more of the same in the fourth for the Spartans, as they poured five more runs across the plate. Two of them came home on a single by pinch-hitter Gabriella Cohan.The top of the order was working to perfection all day as both Kristina Burri and Maria Nazzaro scored three runs apiece. Every Spartan starter with the exception of Brittany Hanscom scored at least one run; and Hanscom knocked in two.The Spartans play a first-round game Saturday (4) at Shawsheen. The two teams met in the Division 3 North finals for four straight years between 2001 and 2004, with the Rams taking three of them.