ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
From left, St. Mary’s Mia Nowicki, Katie Terban and Frankie Simon cheer their teammates on during the Spartans’ sixth-inning rally.
BY STEVE KRAUSE
LYNN — The St. Mary’s softball team has plenty of pitching. That much just about anyone who follows high school softball in this area knows.
But the Spartans got some timely hitting to go along with the pitching Wednesday night at Breed Middle School, and as a result they are going to their home-away-from-home Saturday (11 a.m.), Martin Field in Lowell, for a Division 3 North semifinal game against top-seeded Whittier. A win over the Wildcats will bring St. Mary’s back to Lowell Sunday for the sectional final.
Since 2005, the Spartans have made at least one trip up to Martin Field every spring, including last year when they lost to Austin Prep in the semifinal.
Wednesday’s 4-1 victory over Amesbury spoiled the Fighting Indians’ bid to repeat as Division 3 North champions.
St. Mary’s coach Paige Licata used her starter-closer combo of Michaela Hamill and Mia Nowicki, figuring that is the best way to keep opposing hitters from getting too comfortable at the plate
“It’s a winning formula,” said Licata, in her first season as coach. “Why change it? You could sense that they (Amesbury hitters) were starting to figure Michaela out a little bit, so when Mia gets in there, she’s usually effective. In fact, I’ve never seen her not be effective.”
Amesbury coach Jacquie Waters bore credence to Licata’s strategy. Hamill went five innings, giving up Amesbury’s one run, “and by the fifth, we were starting to get a read on her, moving up or back in the box depending on what we figured she’d be throwing.
“Then she (Nowicki) comes in there and, forget it, we kind of figured that was it,” Waters said. “We’ve never seen anything like that. She was lights out. Unbelievable.”
Hamill retired the first nine batters she faced, and went into the fourth inning with a 1-0 lead thanks to a cannon-shot home run in the second inning by first baseman Tori DiCenso that she roped over the left-field fence.
“She has a lot of power,” said Licata. “You should see some of the shots she’d hit in practice.”
Amesbury got its run in the fourth. Pitcher Hayley Catania led off by dumping a single into left field, and she went to third on an opposite-field base hit by Caitlyn Baker. Catania scored on a groundout by Megan Reid.
And that’s how it stayed through the top of the sixth, with neither offense able to generate anything further. Nowicki relieved Hamill in the top of the sixth and outside of hitting Catania, she was flawless, and struck out three batters in the two innings.
Katie Terban, who had a strong game in the field, led off the bottom of the sixth with a single to right. From there, it was station-to-station baseball for the Spartans as they reeled off singles by Hamill, Nowicki, DiCenso, Talia Smaller, and, after a foul out, Casey Fraher. Holding to the theory that one should never run into the first out of an inning, Licata elected to hold all the runners on second at third base with each single. In all, three runs scored on base hits by DiCenso, Smaller and Fraher.
“HItting is contagious,” said Licata.
Nowicki retired the side in order in the seventh to preserve the win.
