St. Mary’s softball wins D3 North title

LOWELL – For the fifth time in a six-year span, the St. Mary’s softball team celebrated a championship, winning the MIAA Division 3 North final. After losing in the title game to rival Matignon last season, the Spartans returned to the winner’s circle, defeating Whittier Tech 7-3 on Sunday afternoon at Martin Field.View Photo Gallery”It certainly feels a lot better winning this game than it did losing in the championship last season,” coach Colleen Newbury said. “It’s such a nice feeling to see our seniors and all of our players who have worked very hard all season succeed like this.”St. Mary’s, the four-seed, used its usual three-headed monster of starting pitcher Brooke L’Abbe and relievers Jordan D’Orsi and Mia Nowicki to shut down the No. 10 Wildcats’ offense for the majority of the game. L’Abbe, who got the win, went the first four innings, allowing just one run on two hits before her relief duo combined to finish the game allowing three hits and two runs.”We use a full pitching staff quite often, and they work very well together,” explained Newbury. “Whittier hit the ball pretty well (Sunday), but we scored plenty of runs (Sunday), so it was no big deal.”The Spartans offense also shone brightly on the biggest stage. Behind stellar days from sophomore Molly Doyle (3-4, 4 RBI) and senior Victoria Viger (3-3, RBI, 3 runs), the St. Mary’s offense combined for 10 hits.After Whittier grabbed one in the top of the first (a Cassey Glode RBI groundout), the Spartans responded to tie the game. Doyle’s two-out double to left-center scored Kaleigh Finigan (2-4, RBI), who had reached on a fielder’s choice.A three-run second put St. Mary’s comfortably ahead. After an errant throw at shortstop by Glode allowed Casey Fanning to reach, Whittier starter Kayla Riley issued a walk to No. 9 hitter Alexandria Fisher.Alison Butler followed with an RBI double to left-center, scoring special runner Alexis Mango before Viger drove in Fisher with a rocket single that tipped off Riley’s glove and up the middle. Finigan tacked on an RBI single of her own before the inning ended.The Spartans added two runs in the fourth, widening the gap to five. With two outs in the inning, Viger and Finigan recorded back-to-back singles before Doyle drove both runners in with a double to deep center.”I’m feeding whatever Molly ate today to the entire team until the state championship game,” joked Newbury. “What she did out there today was awesome and Victoria as well, who was our nine hitter last season. Having our two and four hitters perform like that is huge.”The Spartans’ final run came in the sixth via an RBI double from Doyle once again. The Wildcats put up two in the sixth off D’Orsi on a two-run double from Josie Sanchez, but had no answer for Nowicki in the final inning.After a shoetop grab from Fanning in right to start the inning, Nowicki caught Lia Zaino looking before inducing Lena Faranna into a game-ending groundout to Viger at second before the team mobbed its pitcher.St. Mary’s moves on to the state semifinals (at Taunton High Tuesday at 5 p.m.) against Case, the 8-6 victor of Sunday night’s matchup against Bristol-Plymouth.”Both teams are very, very good, so we’re going to have to bring our A-game because there is really no room for error at this point,” Newbury said.