Greater Lynn Babe Ruth 14U softball team wins New England Regional crown

LYNN – Forced into a marathon day of softball on Sunday at Grace Rogato Field, the 14U Greater Lynn Babe Ruth All-Stars saved their best performances for the New England Regional semifinals and finals.After working overtime to take a 4-3 win in 12 innings over Norwalk, CT in the regional semifinals, Lynn pulled off another one-run win over Rochester, NH and then beat the New Hampshire champs, 9-3, in the winner-take-all game to claim the program’s second 14U regional crown in three years.Click here for a photo gallery.”I’ve never coached a group of girls that has worked so hard and had so much fun at the same time,” Lynn manager Steve Martin said. “It was really tough for us (Saturday night) because we knew we let one get away and it forced us from having only one game to playing all day.”There were plenty of heroes for Lynn on Sunday, starting in the circle where Molly Doyle pitched all 12 innings in the win over Connecticut and then came on to get the save in relief of Brooke Holey in game one against Rochester.Another hero was catcher Sam Holey, who caught all 26 innings Lynn played on an 87-degree afternoon. Shortstop Shanna Zeramby scored the winning run in the first game at the expense of a bloody nose, and went the distance in the clincher on the mound.”We knew that it would be hard (Sunday),” Martin said. “But we had a lot of people gut things out and I knew if we got to the championship game that we had a good shot of winning.”In the opener of the marathon day, Norwalk scored three unearned runs in the top of the first and never scored again against Doyle.Lynn closed the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the second and tied the game on Brandy Sequeira’s bases-loaded walk in the sixth. The two teams would battle for the next five innings before Norwalk cracked in the 12th.Zeramby was hit by a pitch and went to third on Sam Holey’s base hit. Ivy Martin reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases before Zeramby’s headfirst slide barely beat Katelyn Spielman’s throw home on a Doyle grounder to first.”Molly gave us an iron-man type performance,” Martin said. “She was outstanding.”Not unexpectedly, Lynn came out of the gates sluggishly against Rochester, who had beaten Lynn on Saturday with a walk-off hit to reach the finals.The Slammers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Laura Fraser tripled and scored on a throwing error. It stayed that way until the fourth, when Doyle singled and went to third on a throwing error.A strikeout was followed by a Sequeira bunt single. Katie Donnelly then tied the game with a single to right.An inning later, Lynn took the lead for good by scoring four times in the fifth. Doyle and Gabby Kenniston did the damage with 2-run singles.Rochester scored three in the bottom half to make it 5-4, and put the tying run at second in the seventh before Doyle came on to fan the final two hitters.”I asked Molly how her arm was feeling at that point and she told me that she could have pitched all day,” Martin said. “Brooke did a great job of gutting that game out for us.”The final game would be anticlimactic as Lynn batted around in the second, scoring six unearned runs on four hits and a pair of errors. Ivy Martin’s 3-run double did the bulk of the damage.Rochester closed the gap in the fifth as Lauren Jones had a 2-run double and Jordan Raab, who was 9-for-12 with seven RBI in three meetings with Lynn, had an RBI double to make it 6-3.Lynn put the game on ice in the sixth as three hits and an error led to three runs and a 9-3 lead. Zeramby shut the door from there to seal the title.”The girls felt so positive after (Saturday),” Martin said. “They never had a doubt.”