St. Mary’s softball opens with win over Bishop Fenwick

PEABODY – It was about as efficient an opening win as St. Mary’s softball coach Colleen Newbury could have hoped for.Her Spartans began defense of their Division 3 softball championship on Monday at Bishop Fenwick with a nearly flawless 9-3 win over the Crusaders. St. Mary’s totaled 11 hits, with eight players collecting at least one, and played almost perfect defense while getting an efficient complete game from Sam Kiley.Click here for a photo gallery.”We haven’t had a lot of chances to practice on our own field so I thought we played pretty well actually,” Newbury said. “We hit the ball well and the defense was solid. This is a senior laden team and they played like it (Wednesday).”Six different Spartans drove in runs while seven players scored at least one run. St. Mary’s also took advantage of three Fenwick errors to plate three unearned runs in the fifth inning to allow the Spartans to put the game out of reach.”We have some young and inexperienced players and it showed in a lot of ways,” Fenwick coach Paul Lyman said. “They are such a good team that you can’t put runners on base like that.”St. Mary’s didn’t waste much time in getting going Wednesday as leadoff batter Kristina Burri (2-for-3, 3 RS) was hit by Alyssa Begin to open the game. Burri was sacrificed to second and went to third on Erin McAndrews’ base hit.A wild pitch on a third strike to Angela Dandreo allowed Burri to come home with the game’s first run.Kiley worked a quiet first before running into a little trouble in the second as Katherine Melanson doubled with two outs. Abby Curran followed with a single to right but Melanson was thrown out at the plate on a perfect relay throw from Dandreo at first to end the inning.That play served as a catalyst for the Spartans to bust the game open in the third.Brittany Hanscom and Burri singled before Maria Nazzaro walked to load the bases for McAndrews. The senior catcher nearly cleared the sacks as Alyssa Bornstein reached over the fence in center to take away a grand slam. Hanscom scored on the play to make it 2-0.”I thought Erin had that one there,” Newbury said. “Their outfielder made a nice catch on it.”Dandreo followed with a second sac fly that scored Burri for a 3-0 lead. Ariel LaRosa and Brianna Holmes then laced back to back singles to increase the gap to a fistful of runs.”We were able to take advantage of the opportunities they gave us,” Newbury said.Fenwick fought back in the bottom half of the inning as catcher Amanda McInnis led off with a double and was sacrificed to third. Kiley got the next batter, Kim Shinnick, but Bornstein bunted for a hit that scored McInnis to make it 5-1.Begin followed with a one-hop double to center that allowed Bornstein to race home and cut the lead to 5-2 after three.After a scoreless fourth, St. Mary’s jumped on a chance to put things away in the fifth. Begin got McAndrews to lead off the inning before Dandreo reached on an error.LaRosa went down on a pop up to second before Holmes and Katie Collins singled, allowing Dandreo to come home for a 6-2 gap. Kiley followed with a double to left, scoring Holmes and pinch runner Sabrina Iannetti for an 8-2 lead.The teams would trade runs in the sixth before Kiley pitched around a Melanson single in the seventh to complete the win.