Swampscott goes small to defeat Saugus and gain its first victory

SAUGUS – Something had to give Tuesday morning at the Saugus High softball field.With both the Sachems and visiting Swampscott coming into the game winless, one or the other had to end up with its first “W.”For three innings, the suspense mounted. But the logjam finally broke in the fourth, with Swampscott scoring five runs in a peculiar inning in which the Big Blue didn’t hit the ball all that hard. Swampscott went on from there to a 10-0 win to move its record to 1-2.”I was happy with the way we played,” said Swampscott coach Frank Kowalski. “We played some small ball and that got us some results, and our pitchers (Stephanie Collins and Danielle Mayblyum) both had good games.”For Saugus (0-4), “it was a tough day,” said coach Jessica Lucier. “We are very, very young.”Saugus returned only two starters and four roster players from last year’s tournament team, “so this is very definitely a rebuilding year.”We’re still trying to figure out the right combinations,” she said, but added, “but you know, we had the same kind of a start last year, and we ended up going to the tournament.”Collins and Saugus’ Meagan Molloy matched zeros for the first three innings. Both teams made their share of good fielding plays as well.But the fourth inning was Saugus’ undoing. In fact, five different Swampscott hitters knocked in runs in the five-run inning.It started with Emma Walsh’s bunt single. Walsh stole second and went to third when Tori Thistle followed suit and bunted her way on.Bridget Genoversa-Wong trapped an infield hit that loaded the bases and Christina King’s sacrifice fly to right scored the first run. An errant throw back to the infield allowed the other runners to move up.From there, it was drip, drip, drip. Vicki Himilas laid down a bunt, with all runners moving up, and it was 2-0.Back-to-back singles scored two more runs before Emma Faulkner’s sacrifice fly to right scored the fifth run.In the fifth, Swampscott scored another run when Thistle came home on a passed ball; and the Big Blue got two runs each in the sixth and seventh innings as well.”We’ve been struggling,” said Kowalski, “so it was nice to get this one today.””Our girls want to learn,” said Lucier, “and that’s the nice part. We’ll get better.”Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].