Marblehead softball edges Saugus

MARBLEHEAD – With Saugus’ Nichole Lowe and Marblehead’s Sarah Hastings putting zeroes on the board with regularity on Wednesday at Veterans Middle School, it seemed like the Magicians and Sachems were going to play all day.It was Marblehead, though, who caught a break in the bottom of the eighth as Saugus committed a pair of fatal errors on back-to-back plays, allowing Silvi Cohen to score the game-winning run in a 2-1 Magician victory.”Saugus is a good team,” Marblehead coach John Gold said. “It’s a shame that it had to end on a mistake, but that happens in games like this. Both pitchers threw well.”Hastings held the Sachems to seven hits and one earned run over her eight innings of work. Lowe, meanwhile, was matching her pretty much pitch for pitch over the first seven innings before the wheels came off in the eighth,”It seemed like it was going to be which team made the first mistake would decide things,” Saugus coach Bobbie Finocchio said. “Nichole pitched a great game. She was spectacular.”Marblehead (3-1) broke the ice in the bottom of the first as leadoff batter Kathryn DiGiammarino laid down a perfect bunt for a base hit. She then stole second and flew home on Lucia Chalek’s double to left.Cohen followed with a single before third baseman Rachel Forgione defused further damage when she threw out Chalek at the plate trying to score on Maggie Herman’s ground ball.Saugus’ (3-2) response was swift and effective as cleanup batter Jackie Doherty tomahawked Hastings’ second pitch of the second inning over the centerfield fence to deadlock the game at 1-1.”Jackie is a heck of a player,” Gold said.The Sachems would threaten for more in the second before Hastings worked her way out of trouble. From there on, the pitchers stole the show.For the next five innings, neither team could come up with a run. Saugus would have a golden chance to take the lead in the fifth when Stefanie Terrazzano and Gina Reppucci singled.Gold then elected to intentionally walk Doherty to load the bases and put the tying run at third base.”I hated to put Jackie on at that point, but that’s what we had to do,” Gold said.The move proved to be the right one as Hastings got Forgione to pop out to Alexa Gross at second to end the inning.”Missing that chance hurt a little,” Finocchio said.Lowe, meanwhile, was breezing right along as she held the Magicians to one hit from the second through sixth innings. In the seventh, Hastings reached on an infield single to give Marblehead a chance, but Terrazzano snuffed that out when she threw out courtesy runner Leah Brooks trying to steal second.Saugus would leave the go-ahead run at third in the top of the eighth, giving Marblehead a chance to win in the home half of the inning. Lowe got the first two batters quickly before Cohen reached on an infield single.Herman followed with a popup to second that was dropped, allowing Cohen to reach third. Steph Lyons followed with a sharp grounder to Forgione, who bobbled the ball for a split second and allowed Lyons to beat her throw across the diamond as Cohen scored.