St. Mary’s knocks off unbeaten Amesbury

LYNN – The St. Mary?s Spartans handed Amesbury its first loss of the season with an 11-8 victory at Frey Park on Tuesday.
Amesbury jumped out to a quick lead in the first. Spartans? pitcher Michaela Hamill struck out the first two batters, but Amesbury?s Meagan Aponas reached on a single and scored on Autumn Kligerman?s triple. Hamill struck out the next batter to end the frame.
The St. Mary?s (13-2) offense responded in a big way in the bottom of the inning. Hamill singled, Jessica Martinello was hit by a pitch and Cassi LaFauci brought them both home with a double. LaFauci scored on an error and Katarina Roy knocked in a run on a ground out to put the Spartans on top, 4-1.
Hamill settled in and retired the side in order in the top of the second, and the Spartans offense came out swinging again in the bottom of the second. Martinello drove in Francesca Simon and Hamill, as LaFauci, who finished with three RBIs and three extra-base hits, tripled and scored on an error to give the Spartans a seven-run lead.
The Indians got a run in the third, but the Amesbury bats really broke out in the fourth. A couple of big hits and some untimely errors by the Spartans defense brought the Indians within two.
Hamill, who went 3-for-4 batting leadoff, scoring three runs and driving in one, smashed a solo home run to start off the bottom of the fourth.
?She?s been great in the leadoff spot for us,” Spartans coach Colleen Newbury said of Hamill. “You can see that the girls rallied around her today, and the hitting was contagious.”
Amesbury responded with one of its own the next inning as Aponas?s drive rolled deep into the outfield to lead off the fifth. An error and a couple of singles got the Indians within two.
Mia Nowicki came in to relieve Hamill, who went 4 ? innings, allowing eight runs on nine hits, striking out four. Nowicki inherited two runners and induced a ground ball to shortstop Molly Doyle, who threw out the potential tying run at the plate.
The Spartans grabbed two insurance runs in the sixth thanks to singles from Victoria Dicenso and Simon and a run-scoring double off the bat of Katie Terban. Nowicki shut down the Amesbury offense, allowing just one hit and one walk in her 2 ? innings.
?It was an interesting game,” said Newbury. “Our defense was less than stellar, and we had a lot of different people in there today.”
The game was originally scheduled to be played at Grace Rogato Field, St. Mary?s home turf, but the rain early in the day made the field unplayable despite the best efforts of St. Mary?s staff. The team loaded up the buses and moved over to Frey, where the outfielders did not have the benefit of a fence behind them. Instead, any ball that hit the grass in the outfield just rolled and rolled. Newbury said that the change in location was a factor that contributed to the high-scoring contest.
?It wouldn?t have been 11-8 if we were playing with the fence out there,” said Newbury. “It?s a different game (if it?s) at our home field.”Katie Morrison may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @KatieMo61.