Lynn 14U opens with two wins

LYNN – A little home cooking did wonders for the Greater Lynn Babe Ruth 14U softball all-star team on Friday.Playing on its home field on the opening day of the New England Regionals, Lynn claimed two wins and with it a spot in today’s crossover round barring a crazy set of circumstances. Lynn will play Pittsfield today at 9 a.m.After opening with a 12-5 win over Arlington on Friday morning, the Lynners saved their best performance for the afternoon session against a talented Rochester, NH team.Trailing 6-3 after two innings, Lynn rallied to score six unanswered runs and then held off a seventh-inning charge by Rochester to grab a 9-7 win at Grace Rogato Field.”We did exactly what we wanted to do (Friday),” Lynn manager Steve Martin said. “The girls never panicked when we got behind and the kept battling. Now we’re able to keep our pitching exactly how we want it.”With its fate squarely in its hands against Rochester, Lynn came out of the gates on fire as Shanna Zeramby bunted for a hit to lead things off in the first. An error on the play moved her to second and she scored on Samantha Holey’s groundout to second.Ivy Martin followed with a hit and went to third on the second of Rochester’s seven errors in the contest. Gabby Kenniston then gave Lynn a 2-0 lead when she drove home Martin with a base hit.The Lynn lead didn’t last long as Rochester got to Zeramby in the bottom of the first. Laura Fraser and Shannon Colson drew walks before singles from Lauren Jones and Jordan Raab tied the game at 2-2.Kaley Patterson, who was a thorn in Lynn’s side all game, added a one out hit that plated Raab for a 3-2 New Hampshire lead after one.Lynn tied the game in the top of the second as back-to-back errors resulted in Brooke Holey crossing the plate. Rochester, though, responded again in the bottom half to force Lynn into its bullpen early.Kelsey Garland’s fly ball to left was dropped to get the inning started Colson and Jones later singled to make it 4-3 Rochester. Abby Henderson’s sac fly and a Patterson single scored two more runs to knock Zeramby out in favor of Holey, who got Lily Poulin to end the inning.”One thing about Brooke is that she doesn’t need much time to warm up,” Martin said. “She came in and did a great job for us right away.”It stayed 6-3 Rochester until the fourth when more shoddy defense behind Jones led to more unearned damage.Holey tripled to right to lead off the fourth. Katie Donnelly bunted for a single before Keri Bryson’s grounder was misplayed, scoring courtesy runner Courtney Remson to make it 6-4.An error on Zeramby’s grounder to second led to two more runs crossing to tie the game with Zeramby later scoring on Martin’s groundout to the mound for a 7-6 lead.”Rochester was smashing the ball all over the place,” Steve Martin said. “But my girls stayed with it and kept fighting.”Holey, meanwhile, was in the process of slamming the door on Rochester as she allowed one hit through the middle innings. Her teammates gave her some breathing room in the seventh when Kenniston walked and scored on an error and Holey helped herself with an RBI single.