Spartans keep Holland crown

LYNN – The winner … and still champion …For the fifth straight year, St. Mary?s has won the John Holland Memorial Softball Tournament … defeating Classical, 5-1, Sunday at Breed Middle School.The game was more even than the score would indicate. St. Mary?s scored four of its runs in the second … an inning that Rams coach Chris Warren said seems to define the team?s games against St. Mary?s.?Every time we play them,” said Warren, “it?s always one bad inning.”This one started innocently enough with a groundout by Vanessa Van Buskirk. It disintegrated after that. Mia Nowicki singled and stole second, and took third on Mollie Mello?s base hit. They both scored when Jess Martinello reached on an error.Martinello came home on tournament MVP Cassandra LaFauci?s single to left, and Jennie Mucciarone, who had also singled, scored on a fielder?s choice grounder by Molly Doyle that bounced off one glove but was picked up in time to erase a runner at second as the run scored.The victim of the bad bounces was Classical pitcher Ivy Martin, who went the distance in both the preliminary and championship games. She didn?t give up any runs against Swampscott, and all but one of St. Mary?s runs Sunday were unearned.?She pitched great,” said Warren. “In my mind, she was the MVP of the tournament.”St. Mary?s went up 5-0 in the fourth when Martinello singled, went to third on LaFauci?s base hit, and scored on Doyle?s single.Meanwhile, St. Mary?s pitchers Michaela Hamill and Nowicki were mowing down Classical hitters left and right. Between the two of them, 15 Rams went down swinging. And once Nowicki came on in the fifth, she fanned eight of the nine hitters she faced.?I was happy with our pitching,” said St. Mary?s coach Colleen Newbury. “That seems to be where it needs to be. Outside of walking the leadoff hitter today, we were good.?And we got some hits, too,” she said. “It was a pretty good day.”The Spartans? way of celebrating the win was to practice right after the game for Monday?s annual tussle with Concord-Carlisle.Classical pushed a run across in the seventh when catcher Courtney Braswell doubled and Ally Dunnigan knocked her in.In the consolation game, Swampscott?s Samantha Rizzo blanked English, 7-0. She helped her cause by scoring a run. Swampscott also had two runs score on wild pitches, and Julia Potter, Tori Thistle and Olivia Capone knocked in a run each.In the preliminaries, Martin was masterful on the mound as the Rams defeated the Big Blue, 4-0, Saturday night. All Classical?s runs came across in the first inning and none of them were earned as Swampscott committed two errors. Hannah Leahy was the tough-luck loser for the Big Blue.St. Mary?s defeated English, 25-4, in the other preliminary, in a game that was marred somewhat by a passing shower that dumped torrents of rain onto the field for about 20 minutes. Conditions were less than ideal from that point on.Scholarships went to Classical?s Krista Cuozzo, English?s Keri Bryson, Tori Thistle of Swampscott and Alexandra Fisher from St. Mary?s.The all-tournament team consisted of Bryson and Emma Trahant of English; Christina King and Julia Potter from Swampscott; Francesca Galeazzi and Ally Dunnigan, Classical; and Michaela Hamill, Mia Nowicki and Cassandra LaFauci from St. Mary?s.