Slow start dooms St. Mary’s softball against Spellman

LYNN – Take away the first two innings of Monday’s St. Mary’s-Spellman softball game at Grace Rogato Field and it would have been a very competitive contest.Problem was that the Cardinals exploded for 10 runs in the first two innings and never looked back en route to a 14-2 win over the Spartans.Click here for a photo gallery.”We need to work on getting off to better starts,” St. Mary’s coach Colleen Newbury said. “It’s awful hard to come back from 10-0 down. Spellman is a good team and they hit the ball well.”The top of the Spellman order did most of the damage, led by a 3-for-5, four-RBI day from No. 3 batter Amy Gleeson. Centerfielder Nicole McDonough also drove home three runs and was stellar in patrolling the outfield, taking away a couple of extra-base hits with nifty catches.Spellman got all the runs it needed in the first, sending nine batters to the plate and scoring six times. In fact, the first six Spellman batters reached and scored. McDonough, Gleeson, Meggie Gildea and Katie Donahoe all drove home runs.St. Mary’s (2-1) had a threat in the bottom of the first as Maria Nazzaro and Erin McAndrews singled but Cardinal pitcher Hillary Tarr worked her way out of the jam.The Cardinals then picked right up with their offense in the second. Gleeson got her second RBI of the game with a double that scored Barbara Silva to make it 7-0.McDonough then blasted a double to the fence in left, scoring Kim Brooks and Gleeson. Tarr would bring the final run across on a fielder’s choice.”If you eliminate the first two innings, it was a pretty good game,” Newbury said.St. Mary’s got a run back in the bottom of the fourth when McAndrews and Kristina Burri singled.An error moved both into scoring position before Brianna Holmes’ single scored courtesy runner Sabrina Iannetti. Ariel LaRosa then ripped a shot to center but McDonough ranged to her right to make the catch. Following a popout, Kiley sent McDonough back to the fence to make a catch to end the inning.”We hit a lot of balls hard, but right at people,” Newbury said.Spellman responded in the fifth with three more runs on one hit, an error and a walk. The teams would exchange runs in the seventh to complete the scoring.