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Swampscott pitcher Hannah Leahy pitched a complete game for the Big Blue in a win over North Reading on Tuesday.
BY SCOT COOPER
NORTH READING — With Tuesday’s Division 2 North quarterfinal game tied at two after six innings, the Big Blue scored three in the seventh for a 5-2 win over North Reading. Swampscott advances to the semifinal round on Friday, against a familiar foe from the Northeastern Conference, Gloucester.
Hannah Leahy pitched a complete game for Swampscott, but she wasn’t overpowering. North Reading put the ball in play, and the defense did a fantastic job, according to Swampscott coach Gary Moran.
‘It was huge, really huge that our defense was great today. It was a tough sun in the outfield, but we made all the plays we had to make,” Moran said. “We had a couple of double plays that stopped them from having any big innings.”
Swampscott got on the board early, with a run in the first and another in the fourth. Kasey Kennedy drove in Olivia Cooke for the first run, and Katie Watts, who had three hits, drove in Michaela Freddo for the second run.
North Reading tied it up in the fifth and was trying to pull ahead, when the Blue turned in an interesting double play to get out of trouble. Christina King fielded a single in center that scored the second run, and fired the ball to Cooke at the plate. Cooke made the tag, and shot a throw down to Sydney Cresta at third to get out of the inning.
North Reading coach Michelle Morales said she might have been too aggressive with the base running.
“We seemed to be down in the counts to her (Leahy) most of the game, so we tried to make something happen for us, and it didn’t work out,” Morales said. “It’s on me, I sent some runners when I shouldn’t have.”
Leahy drove in Watts with the eventual winning run on a double in the Blue seventh. The guests padded their lead to 5-2 when Maisie Vasquez and Cresta both walked with the bases loaded.
“We got great pitching from Hannah, Katie Watts seemed to be on base every time she got up, and our defense was great,” Moran said. “It was a really big win against a good team.”
